Flight patterns.

• Position: Western - Asheville Regional Airport removed from city limits

The most recent skirmish in the war over Asheville Regional Airport came in April, when state Rep. Chuck McGrady filed a bill to remove it from the city's limits. If the General Assembly passes it, Asheville would lose about $190,000 a year of tax revenue. The fighting should have ended a year ago after the legislature took control of the airport from the city and Buncombe County and gave it to an independent regional authority, but the City Council has not complied with an accompanying mandate requiring it to transfer 50 acres near the airport to the state. McGrady, a Hendersonville Republican, hopes the proposed legislation will spur the city to action, but Vice Mayor Esther Manheimer told the Asheville Citizen-Times that the legislator "may be disappointed with our lack of enthusiasm."

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Such scuffling could be obscuring a larger issue. Asheville Regional passenger traffic is falling--down 13% last year compared with 2010. Spokeswoman Tina Kinsey says that was expected, attributing it to national trends such as airline consolidation. (Chicago-based United Airlines and Houston-based Continental Airlines' merger cost the airport a flight to Houston; Dallas-based Southwest Airlines' acquisition of Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran Airways cost two more...