Great. You're only about forty years too late

Group seeks to make N.O. an airline hub

Former Senator Ken Hollis says the plan is to more than double the number of direct flights out of the city, which number only 28 currently, by buying an airline that would make the city a hub.

Hollis said a Baton Rouge money man is the brains behind the idea that would include a $1 billion investment by the Royal Bank of Scotland and a contribution of about $75 million from the state of Louisiana.

Actually, something like this scheme has been floated many times off and on for as long as I can remember. Usually, the scheme has involved building a new regional airport somewhere between New Orleans and Baton Rouge or at least expanding the facilities at Moisant uh... Armstrong. Invariably these rumors lead to runs of fruitless land speculation in the swamps just west of the city. (I think the Monteleone family currently holds vast tracts of the I-310 corridor as a result of this... or at least they did at one point)

I wonder who this mysterious "Baton Rouge money man" is... and if the "transparent" dragonslaying Jindal administration is particularly chummy with him.