NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The executive director of Newport News-Williamsburg Airport was fired Monday morning.
By a vote of 4 to 1, the Peninsula Airport Commission voted to terminate Airport Executive Director Michael Giardino, effective immediately.
While board chairwoman Lindsey Carney-Smith would not specify reasons for the termination, she said the airport is focused on growth.
"We have greater needs for air service here within our communities and we feel like change in management might facilitate that growth," Carney-Smith told 13News Now.
Commissioner Tommy Garner, who made the motion for termination, said the airport was not living up to its huge potential.
Jay Joseph was the only commissioner who voted not to terminate.
Giardino, who had been the airport's executive director for five and half years, had no comment about the vote. He did oversee the arrival of the low-cost airline Avelo last fall.
The board had been taking a close look at Giardino's performance in recent months. It was a specific topic of discussion in a closed session during a January 26 board meeting, and minutes from a December 21 board meeting specify concerns about the lack of enplanements for American Airlines and Avelo, which made its debut at the airport in October.
A $2.5 million loss is forecasted for the fiscal year. About 93,000 enplanements are projected between the airport's only airlines, Avelo and American, far below the 151,000 needed for the airport to break even, according to the minutes.
According to the airport financials, as indicated in the minutes, Avelo's enplanements would not make up for the loss of American flights to Philadelphia.
Presently, American only flies to Charlotte from Newport News.
In an email earlier this month, Giardino responded to questions from 13News Now about whether he's confident Avelo will stay in Newport News, saying, "we do not discuss publicly potential service or airline discussions related to new air service."
Giardino also provided links to articles about how smaller airports countrywide are struggling, especially since the pandemic.
Originally, Avelo was supposed to provide flights three days a week but trimmed to only two.
In a statement, Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff said, "As far as enplanements, we have decent load factors. They could be better, but we are ok with where they are at this time. We have also just extended our schedule to allow for booking through September 6, 2023, and PHF is included in that extension. We suspended the Tuesday flights from PHF due to low bookings, but in doing so have seen better loads on the other flights. The demand did not match having that Tuesday flight."