General aviation development would boost airport’s economic impact
The citizens of Columbia, Jefferson City and the remainder of central Missouri have a great misconception that the success of the Columbia Regional Airport is limited to its airline operations. Al Germond’s April 21 editorial is a prime example of this mislaid vision of general air transportation, so underutilized in this state. There is also a general misunderstanding of the economics of airports and management.
The error is pinning the hopes and dreams of the Columbia Regional Airport on the operations of a single commercial air carrier. I agree that commercial flights need to extend beyond St. Louis and Kansas City to include Dallas and Chicago, regardless of which airport is chosen in those cities. It does not matter if the airport is part of the Columbia’s city regime or a regional airport authority; economics alone will dictate the use of the facility. “How many seats can you fill in both directions?” is the only question that needs to be answered.
What I do not understand is the lack of general aviation and economic development at Columbia’s airport. General aviation (GA) includes any aircraft that is not military or [part of] an airline. This includes UPS, DHL and FedEx air carriers, air charter and air taxi services, the air ambulance attached to University and Boone County hospitals and, of course, corporate and personal-use aircraft—the privately owned jets and piston airplanes.
Through GA, there are more than 12,000 possible destinations available throughout the United States from Columbia by air. Departure and arrival times are dictated by the traveler’s convenience, not by an airline’s limited schedule. Furthermore, most GA airports are closer to the desired final destination than the large commercial airports, requiring less travel time.
Here is a prime example. If I need to go to Schaumberg, Ill., for a business meeting, flying commercial, I would leave home at 7:30 a.m. for a 9 a.m. flight from Columbia to Kansas City, then transfer to my flight to Chicago’s O’Hare International, arriving around noon. I would then have to rent a car, fight traffic and arrive, I hope, at my meeting. I may be in Schaumberg by 3 p.m., exhausted from almost eight hours of travel.
In a Cessna 172, a modest four-place, single-engine aircraft, the trip would take less than two hours and 30 minutes, and I could come and go as I pleased. If I owned a light twin, like a Cessna 320, or chartered a flight, [I’d spend] maybe 90 minutes in the air. Either way, I would be landing at the Chicago/Schaumburg airport, five miles from my meeting (not at Chicago’s O’Hare, adding another 20 miles and worrying about car rentals, traffic and finding a flight home).
The use of corporate aircraft is also a boon to the local economy. Businesses large and small use their own or shared-owner aircraft, even air taxi services, to ferry executives throughout the country. One Colorado-based corporation uses its corporate jet to allow top executives to telecommute, including an executive living here in the Columbia region. As an alternative to moving, finding new housing, new schools and new lives, GA allows one to relax miles above the turmoil when commuting to the corporate office for an occasional meeting.
Bill Dunn, vice president-airports for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, tells us that private pilots also provide an economic boost to the local economy. In a March 2007 letter, Mr. Dunn writes that, per the Unites States Department of Transportation, for every dollar spent on the airport, $2.53 is spent in the local community. “This translates to employment opportunities and tax benefits” for Columbia, Ashland and Jefferson City. Even Rocheport and Hallsville. Yet Columbia, Ashland and Boone County have failed to develop the properties surrounding COU to ignite such a windfall.
More important than a new regional airport authority would be the development of the economic base surrounding the airport. Columbia must punctuate the inclusion of this vital link to the world, the access to and from the middle of Middle America by air. Our regional airport needs to be added as a major asset in the University of Missouri–Columbia, Stephens College and Columbia College recruitment brochures. We need to sell the central location of Columbia by air and land when reaching out to new businesses. We cannot continue to lament the time it takes to drive from St. Louis or Kansas City. We need to promote general aviation and expand the available of services at COU, not create new regulatory authorities.
—David Rosman, Columbia