The North Carolina Senate is expected to take a final vote Wednesday on whether to take away control of Charlotte Douglas Airport from the city of Charlotte and give it to an authority.

Sen. Malcolm Graham said he's concerned that giving power to an untested, 13-member board that would run an airport authority would destabilize the city, region and the airport itself.

"This is one of the best-run airports I've ever been to," traveler Carole Macfie said.

Graham believes a switch to an airport authority could change that.

"It's going to create a whole lot of confusion where no confusion exists today," he said.

Graham said it's the worst time to hand over control to a new regional board.

"The city of Charlotte has demonstrated that they can run the sixth-busiest airport in the world," he said.

There is a lot of action at Charlotte Douglas Airport right now. American Airlines and U.S. Airways are merging and expect to keep a hub in Charlotte. Construction is under way on a multimillion dollar regional freight hub at the airport, the intermodal facility. There are also more than $800 million in city-issued bonds, backed by airport revenue, funding projects like the new hourly parking deck.

There is no clear answer on how a takeover would affect the city, the bonds, or the projects. Two firms, one studying the bonds for the city of Charlotte and the other taking a look at them for Sen. Bob Rucho, have come up with different opinions on how the switch would affect the bonds.

The firm Parker Poe, which submitted a report to the city dated Feb. 26, said "there is no guarantee or incentive for the bondholders to consent to such a change" and that the city "will be in default under the bond documents if such an assignment or transfer takes place without bondholder consent" or redeeming all the bonds possible.

The firm Jones Walker, which submitted a report to Rucho this week, said transferring the bonds from the city to an authority "should not require bondholder consent," that it would be unlikely for the bill to "cause there to be a re-issuance of the Airport Revenue Bonds," and that it shouldn't affect repayment terms or interest rates.

The North Carolina Treasurer's Office won't have its study ready until mid-March.

But Rucho, the bill's primary sponsor in the Senate, said the city can't properly manage the airport's growing needs and calls it a regional asset that needs to be managed by a regional board.

Graham said the bill will pass the Senate but he has some hope that it will slow down in the House.

He believes some representatives will want to wait for the city to finish its own study on an airport authority before the House votes.