The city of Detroit couldn't give away its underused municipal airport to creditors during bankruptcy settlement negotiations, ex-Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said Tuesday during an "exit interview" at a Detroit Economic Club luncheon at Cobo Center.
Costly upgrades at Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport and dim prospects for wider commercial aviation stopped the idea from taking off, Matt Helm of the Detroit Free Press quotes Orr as saying.
Orr said the city assessed the condition of the airport and found it would need runway improvements and expansion and significant facility upgrades — as much as $20 million in work — despite proposals over the years for a return of passenger air service that never materialized and seemed unlikely anytime soon.
"The reality is as a general aviation airport it is not a commercial airport," Orr said. "We were perfectly willing to give it to some of our creditors provided they were willing to put in a certain amount of improvements. None of them took the bait."
"We were perfectly willing to give it to some of our creditors [if] they were willing to put in certain amount of improvements," he said. "None of them took the bait."
