BATON ROUGE - The Baton Rouge Metro Airport is taking critical steps to become a standalone airport authority.

Director of Aviation at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, Mike Edwards, says conversations surrounding the airport's governance model began around three years ago. In 2024, the airport underwent a governance study.

"Ultimately, out of the study, both the airport commission and the metro council, which is the current airport authority, recommended and approved that we look at transitioning the airport from a city-parish department to an airport authority," Edwards said.

The state legislature signed off on the move last year, along with the Metro Council appointing the members of the Baton Rouge Regional Airport Authority. Now, Edwards says the final step is underway to make the transition official. He says they are awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a change in airport sponsorship.

"Our current grants and future grants would be under the new authority, so we've got to sign an assumption agreement, where the authority assumes all of those current grants, and with the approval of the change in sponsorship, the authority will be able to compete for future grant opportunities."

Once that application is approved, all airport operations will go through the airport authority.

"I have observed that this airport is really self-sufficient in its own way, and so actually being under the city-parish government meant that we had to get approval for just about everything," Baton Rouge Metro Airport Board Commissioner and State Rep. Barbara Carpenter said.

Edwards says the airport does not receive money from the city-parish general fund.

"We have over 50 tenants, over 100 leases at the airport. Right now, we have an approximately $18 million annual operating budget for 2026. Again, that's all self-funded. We don't receive any local tax dollars or mileage, and we don't see that changing in the future," Edwards said.

With the transition to a standalone airport, Edwards says they hope to take the airport to the next level.

"Be much more competitive within the industry, whether it comes to attracting new airline service, competing for grants, or attracting and retaining top talent," Edwards said.

Edwards says they are looking at Oct. 31 as the anticipated transition date.