Despite several lawmakers' objections, the N.C. Senate gave final approval to a bill taking away control of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport from the city.

"There is no transparency with this bill," Sen. Malcolm Graham said from the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.

Other Democratic lawmakers also raised concerns, but the bill passed with 32 ayes, all Republicans, and 18 noes, all Democrats.

"We'll be able to have a great chance to move forward and use the airport as an economic driver of the future," Sen. Bob Rucho, the bill's primary sponsor in the Senate, said.

"It's a sad day in the Senate," Graham said. "What's wrong with the airport? No one has articulated a cohesive reason for why a change is needed."

Graham said the Senate simply doesn't have all the facts on how a takeover would affect the city, the airport, and more than $800 million in city-issued bonds, backed by airport revenue, funding airport projects.

A Louisiana-based firm, Jones Walker, released its findings on the bonds to the Alliance for a Better Charlotte, led by former city councilman Stan Campbell. It stated that the bonds would not be adversely affected by the takeover.

But the city of Charlotte released its own report from firm Parker Poe late in February saying just the opposite and questioned how the bonds would be handed over to an authority.

The state Treasurer's Office is expected to release its own study by the end of this week or early next week. But Rucho said there was no need to wait for the report and he expected it would affirm the findings by Jones Walker.

"We'll be able to move on forward and have it double-checked," he said.

Graham said he hopes that the House will move more slowly.

"Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail," he said.

Rep. Bill Brawley said he thinks the process in the House will begin next week and said he expects it will get "good deliberation" among House members.

"Maybe a little slower (than the Senate)," he said. "We have more members. There will be more discussion but this will not be a glacial pace. We're not going to run out the clock on this."

But he does not believe the House will wait for the results of the City of Charlotte's study, which is expected to be completed in May.

"When they've gotten studies that gave an answer that they didn't like, they did another study until they got the answer they liked," he said. "I don't believe there's a sense that the study is credible."

Rucho said U.S. Airways and American Airlines officials, who are working on a merger right now and expect to keep a hub at Charlotte Douglas Airport, haven’t indicated any issues.

"I've asked them, 'Is this something that would interfere with your plans for the future?' and they said, 'We want certainty.' This is certainty," he said.

But U.S. Airways officials said they have no official statement on the issue.