The state’s top transportation official had tough words Wednesday about the Peninsula Airport Commission’s bailout of People Express Airlines but proposed a way forward that wasn’t as harsh as state auditors suggested.
The state will not continue its freeze on all funds to the airport but won’t resume payments in full unless Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport meets several key conditions, Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne told the commission.
He said he did not want to cut off all the state money the airport is entitled to receive — roughly $1.5 million to $1.8 million a year — because that would cripple the airport.
