There’s nothing worse than when the local paper of record doesn’t understand a local policy issue and blindly accepts the government’s and the chamber’s spin on things. Today’s example is the absurd softball of an article on Charlotte/Douglas International Airport’s plans for a new parking deck to allow for a terminal expansion.

If you read the minutes of the Airport Advisory Committee’s meetings (see, for example, April 2007), it’s very clear that the driving force here isn’t a desire for a deeper terminal to avoiding crowding at the check-in counters and baggage claims. No, Jerry Orr wants to build a new international terminal with 20 to 25 gates. The only place the airport has room to do that is where the rental car parking lots currently are. After talking to the rental car companies, the preferred solution was to replace the existing hourly parking lots with a bigger deck, a change that would also allow for the bigger check-in and baggage areas.

Oh, and the new parking deck is being paid for in part by a customer facility charge, a extra $3.50 per day tacked on to cars rented at the airport. Somehow the Observer missed that point. And since the airport has been collecting the fee since 2007, they’re pretty much obligated to move forward. And the new deck isn’t really going to add many more net parking spots, contrary to what the out-of-town consultant the Observer interviewed said.

Now does CLT actually need more international gates? There’s this justification:

International flights now arrive in the 13-gate Concourse D, which is running out of space. US Airways recently brought back non-stop service to Paris – discontinued after 9-11 – and will begin non-stop service to Rio de Janeiro in December.

Wrong. First of all, only 11 of the 13 gates on D concourse are regularly used for international arrivals. (D4 is used for commuter flights; jetBlue’s gate is D6). And the Rio de Janeiro flight will be an absolute non-factor in this as it gets in early in the morning — some eight hours before any other international arrival.

More generally though, the gate-use driver isn’t CLT’s four European flights. It’s the Carib/Central America flights. And as we’ve observed in the past, those markets are wildly asymmetrical, with many more flights on Saturdays (weekday Carib/Central America flights that clear immigrations and customs here: 13; on Saturday its 23) than during the week. And there’s absolutely no sign that US Airways is growing its Carib/Central American operations. If anything, the opposite is true.

Bonus observation: What planet is Susan Burgess on? And who is giving her advice? Because believing this just isn’t rational:

I am assured that if anything were to happen to US Airways, the gates would still be full.