§ 42-64.32-3. Air service development council. (a) The Rhode Island commerce corporation shall establish an air service development council (the "council"), that shall have the authority and responsibility for entering into agreements with scheduled air carriers and/or cargo carriers to provide direct financial incentives, revenue guarantees, and/or other support to incentivize air service to T.F. Green state airport.

(b) The air service development council shall consist of the secretary of commerce, or his or her designee, who shall serve as chair of the council, and four members appointed by the board of the Rhode Island commerce corporation, at least one of whom shall have airport management or air carrier experience, at least one of whom shall be a representative from a chamber of commerce, and at least one of whom shall represent a business with more than one hundred (100) employees located in Rhode Island. No member of the council shall be a director or employee of the Rhode Island airport corporation. Members shall serve at the pleasure of the board of the commerce corporation. The members shall not receive a salary but shall be reimbursed for any necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

(c) The Rhode Island commerce corporation shall have the authority under this chapter to enter into contracts providing for incentives, guarantees, and/or other support for new or additional flights to T.F. Green state airport by scheduled air carriers or cargo carriers, provided that such contracts have been previously approved by the air service development council. Such incentives, guarantees, and other support shall be financed only with proceeds from the air service development fund established pursuant to § 42-64.32-2, and not with any airport revenue, subject to regulation pursuant to the policies or regulations of the federal aviation administration.

(d) The air service development council shall publish the criteria that it will use in evaluating proposals or arrangements that further the purposes of this chapter. Such criteria shall require, at a minimum, that to qualify for incentives a scheduled air carrier or cargo carrier must commit to new or additional flights for an agreed-upon duration that represent an increase in service.

(e) The air service development council may, at its discretion, provide incentives to service to one scheduled air carrier or cargo carrier without offering identical incentives to other scheduled air carriers or cargo carriers if doing so furthers the purposes of this chapter.

History of Section. (P.L. 2016, ch. 142, art. 17, § 3.)