Last summer UNC had legislation approved in the General Assembly to create an airport authority, a university-dominated group that would locate, build and run a new airport. That move sparked intense opposition from residents, especially those in rural Orange County, but the university showed no signs of backing away from the plan. On the contrary, Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote op-ed pieces for this paper and others defending it and explaining the rationale behind it.

Then, a week ago Friday, on Jan. 9, Thorp made an announcement remarkable for its frankness and clarity. He had changed his mind, he said. He would ask the Board of Governors not to establish the airport authority after all.

No airport authority, no airport.

Thorp, who got handed this hot potato when he took office last summer, deserves a great deal of credit for making a very difficult decision.

He deserves credit not only for the decision itself -- which we believe was the right one -- but for his clear-eyed assessment of the situation and the refreshingly candid way he explained it.

Thorp initially believed, he said, that a new airport in Orange County was the best way to accomplish the twin goals of maintaining a convenient base for the university's Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) and proceeding with the planned Carolina North satellite campus. AHEC now flies out of Horace Williams Airport, which will have to be closed to make room for Carolina North.

But Thorp said he eventually came to the conclusion that the process by which the airport authority was created had generated so much distrust that the authority would be unable to accomplish its mission. Therefore, he said, he felt it was "in the best interest of the University and our community not to form the authority."

He was right. The university mishandled the process by acting unilaterally, bypassing the county commissioners and the public.

That imperious approach, combined with the university's claim of the power of eminent domain and its inability to convincingly articulate the need for a new airport, instantly created the groundswell of distrust Thorp referred to.

The chancellor acknowledged what we and others have been saying all along: that AHEC already has a viable alternative to Horace Williams in Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

The issue isn't dead. Some powerful individuals and groups still want an airport in Orange County. But the flawed approach the university was on has been waved off, thanks to Thorp and the many ordinary citizens who organized, researched and made an intelligent and effective case.

As for the lesson to be drawn from all of this, we can't put it any more succinctly than Thorp did: "Whether Orange County wants and needs an airport should be widely and openly discussed. And the decision should be made by the county and its citizens."