"The airport lease was a very valuable thing," he said, and shrugged.

This is something that is being used as a strategic device to try to squeeze more money out of the Port Authority for the airport leases.

In the late-1980s, Coventry City Council sold the airport lease to Air Atlantique.

It was culled from a $450 million settlement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over airport leases.

The money in question comes from a $450 million settlement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over airport leases.

The airport lease is set to expire in 2015, and the city and the Authority have been trying to negotiate an extension for several years.

Mr. Giuliani complains bitterly about shrinking payments from the city's airport leases, which dropped from $84 million to $3 million over a four-year period.

There is a recent precedent for funneling cash to the city through some arrangement with the authority over airport leases.

By settling the dispute between Newark and the Port Authority over the airport lease, Newark stands to get a $265 million windfall.

Northerly Island where the airport was located was owned by the Chicago Park District, which refused to renew the airport lease in 1996.