A proposed expansion of Terminal B at Houston Intercontinental has stalled after Chris Brown, a city controller – or chief accounting officer – for Houston, refused to sign off on a deal between the city and United Airlines (UA, Chicago O’Hare), preventing the municipality from voting on it.
The planned municipal regulation calls for the city to use USD150 million from an airport infrastructure fund to go towards the nearly USD2.6 billion project, which would overhaul the terminal so that more and larger aircraft can be accommodated. Under the terms of the deal, United would put around USD1.5 billion towards the work – the carrier had hoped construction work would start by the end of this year – while the city would pay USD624 million in three instalments including the above sum.
The agreement can still be revived at any future city council meeting, and a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement that it continues to anticipate council approval, thanking Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, for his support.
“United Airlines is committed to providing the best travel experience to our customers and that includes investing in [the] redevelopment of our Houston hub,” the spokesperson said in the statement, as quoted by the Houston Chronicle newspaper. “We are eager for Houston City Council to approve their portion of this project so we can deliver on the numerous benefits to our customers and employees.”
According to the Houston Chronicle, the pause exposed possible tension between Turner and Brown, both of whom are reaching the end of their terms in office. While Turner said at a council meeting that the money is available, he also accused Brown of pandering to politics which is not his role.
“That is a major improvement to Terminal B, and quite frankly, if we don’t move forward, United could move to Denver or some other place,” he said. “There is no reason for the controller to be holding on to this item and jeopardising this major project.”
Brown said he had not approved the agreement because, as quoted by Houston Public Media, “I’m elected by the taxpayers to ensure we’re making smart use of funds and making smart decisions that don’t jeopardise taxpayers in the future. We want to make sure we’re doing the proper due diligence. We’re still working through a lot of questions we have. I don’t know that we’ll get there [this week], but we’ll see.”
According to ch-aviation capacities data, Houston Intercontinental is United Airlines’ second-most important hub after Denver International, accounting for 9.93% of its weekly capacity by seats for the week starting November 20. It currently operates 148 routes from there.