Bringing new life to Columbia Regional Airport | From the Roundtable

The ongoing revitalization and development of Columbia Regional Airport continues to be one of my obsessions. There are signs of progress in some areas balanced by disappointment in others

First, the positives:
• With federal grant money in hand, the crosswind runway will be rebuilt, strengthened and doubled in width to accommodate private and commercial aircraft, and the main runway is being lengthened to 7,500 feet and completely rebuilt.
• A new interchange is being built at the intersection of U.S. Highway 63 and Route H to facilitate safer access to the airport in concert with other improvements on the busy divided north-south expressway.
• Boarding on Delta Airlines’ three 50-passenger jets offering nonstop service to Memphis International Airport is holding steady at 80 percent, and the company said it is pleased with its operation here, incidentally free of all federal subsidies.
• Unofficially, there’s talk of adding one or more daily nonstop flights to Detroit (a distance of about 500 miles) with its considerable range of domestic and international connections.

• City Manager Mike Matthes has publicly acknowledged the importance of Columbia Regional Airport and continues what his predecessor Bill Watkins accelerated as a municipal priority.
• Mayor Bob McDavid “gets it” as far as the airport is concerned and forcefully champions the facility as both a gateway and the key to future regional economic development. The other six members of the Columbia City Council appear to be equally supportive.
• We have a new airport manager, brimming with enthusiasm and a new way of looking at things based on experience elsewhere.
• There’s talk of subsidies to one or more carriers, which in effect guarantees a certain minimum number of annual bookings as the necessary sweetener to gain access to additional destinations.
• The Airport Advisory Board has been re-energized under its chairman, Greg Cecil, with specific responsibilities delegated to each member.
• The Columbia Chamber of Commerce has established a special committee to tackle various aspects of the airport situation.
• Regional Economic Development Inc. remains vitally interested in the airport as are other area governing bodies such as Boone County and the city of Ashland.
The greatest disappointment has to be the ambivalence of the region’s largest employer, the University of Missouri, to get with the program and step out and take the lead to further the cause of our airport.
• The University of Missouri may talk the talk about encouraging faculty and staff to use Columbia Regional Airport, but in practice many university employees continue using airports at either side of the state, oftentimes due to significant personal accumulations of frequent-flyer miles.
• With no apparent centralized travel office or coordinating effort, university employees typically book their own flights and often swell their pockets by journeying to a more distant airport for which they are compensated by the mile. A travel office would be responsible for booking all flights, keeping track of frequent-flyer miles and other discounts, perhaps goaded by legislative insistence that the institution support the community where it is located.

There are a couple of other matters to consider:
• There’s only lukewarm support for establishing a regional operating authority that would include Jefferson City and Fulton, so Columbia will probably continue to own and operate the airport on its own. Kudos to state Rep. Chris Kelly for boldly proposing this, however, and there’s still a chance it may happen.
• Creating a “port authority” on a vastly miniaturized scale compared to what already exists in many larger metro areas would be financially fragile without any reliable revenue streams to back any bonds issued. The bonds floated in 1964 to develop the present airport were backed in those pre-Hancock Amendment days by a 3-cent-per-pack cigarette tax.
• Major terminal improvements are needed. The challenge will be coming up with the money at a time when there are other pressing needs and budgets are already strained.
• The Chamber of Commerce should work with its adjacent city affiliates to determine how our airport is being used for personal and business travel by residents in those communities.
• What about the state of Missouri’s airline travel arrangements? Let’s fathom this and suggest a coordinated effort along the lines already suggested for the University of Missouri system.
Then there’s the matter of additional service to new destinations. What a fillip if the whispers about one or more direct daily flights to Detroit came true. With nonstop service to Europe and the Far East, what a boost this could be for economic development in Columbia fresh from the frustration of having lost a big prospect recently because a more direct connection to Europe was not available.
Let’s forget about Chicago for the time being because its international airport is a mess. The sprawling O’Hare facility seems more prone to delays of all sorts more than any other hub. Even if one or more Holy Grail nonstop flights came our way, one wonders about the rate of fulfillment after hearing tales of calls made to feeder city airports saying “don’t come” because the airspace is all fouled up Windy City way.
What other hub airport should we pursue? How about Denver International and its superb connections to all points west, including the Orient? Lots of folks here have reason to head for the mountains, so let’s go for Denver.
Imagine how busy Columbia Regional Airport might become if MU and much of the state government’s out-of-state air travel arrangements were booked through this facility, topped off with other personal and business travel originated out of our multi-county catchment area. Let’s go for it, full speed ahead!