By Wilson                                             H.B. No. 1871
         76R4857 DRH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to continued commercial air service at municipal airports.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 22, Transportation Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 22.902 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 22.902.  CONTINUED SERVICE INTO MUNICIPAL AIRPORT.  (a)
 1-7     A municipality that operates an airport shall allow each commercial
 1-8     airline that serves the airport the option to continue service to
 1-9     that airport if the municipality opens a new airport that is
1-10     farther from the central business district of the municipality than
1-11     the existing airport.
1-12           (b)  If a commercial airline elects to continue providing
1-13     service to an airport as provided by Subsection (a), the
1-14     municipality shall continue to operate that airport.
1-15           SECTION 2.  Section 22.902, Transportation Code, as added by
1-16     this Act, applies only in relation to the opening of a new airport
1-17     by a municipality on or after January 1, 1999.
1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.