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Baton Rouge Regional Airport shifts to standalone authority after 3-year process
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BATON ROUGE — After a three-year process, the Baton Rouge Regional Airport has officially transitioned from city-parish oversight to an independent airport authority.
Mike Edwards, chief executive officer of the airport, said officials reviewed its previous governance structure alongside operating models of airports nationwide to evaluate how peer facilities position themselves for success.
“Ultimately out of that process came a recommendation that the airport needed to move to an airport authority style of management and governance,” Mike Edwards said.
Edwards said he expects the authority structure to grant the airport board and management team more direct control, speeding up decision-making, increasing operational flexibility and boosting the airport's ability to recruit top talent and attract new air service.
“This is gonna set the airport up for advancements over the next five, ten, twenty years,” Edwards said.
Metropolitan Councilman Anthony Kenney represents District 2, where the airport is located, and said the restructuring streamlines operations for long-term decisions.
“I think as the airport continues to grow to be competitive with nationwide airport authorities across the nation. I think this is the first good step to ensure that our airport continues that great momentum as they continue to expand our airport into the future,” Kenny said.
Passengers will not notice an immediate difference in day-to-day operations. However, airport leaders are restructuring an organizational chart that had remained largely unchanged since 1969. As a city-parish department, the airport was bound by municipal hiring rules that prevented it from creating specialized, airport-specific staff positions.
"That model served the airport well for over fifty years but it didn't provide the level of flexibility that we need in this current environment so, a lot of those changes will be taking place administratively," Edwards said.
In the long term, airport officials aim to use the new authority to recruit additional airlines, attract new economic investment and expand travel opportunities across the Capital Region.
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