The City of Columbia and
the Columbia Regional Airport announced that they didn't take money from
the Air Service Revenue Guarantee fund for the 15th straight month.
Air Service Revenue
Guarantee fund helped attract American Airlines to begin flights from
Columbia Regional in 2013. The fund ensures American Airlines makes a
profit each month.
The $3 million fund
consists of money from several private businesses in Columbia and
mid-Missouri as well as funds from various government entities.
The fund paid American Airlines $22,562 in March 2013, its first month of service. But the fund hasn't been touched since.
Airport manager Don Elliot said Columbia is doing better than destinations.
"Columbia really stands
out," Elliot said. "The average community usually pays out about pretty
close to a half a million dollars during the contract period."
Attendance on flights to Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth is nearly 85 percent earning enough profits for the airport.
American added a second
flight from Columbia to Chicago O'Hare in April 2013 due to increased
transportation, and the demand for flights remains.
As chair of the airport advisory board Greg Cecil said, if the demand keeps up, more flights could be headed to mid-Missouri.
"If we had flights say on
Frontier or some other airline to go west or if Delta were to come back
and get us to the West Coast that would be a great thing for us," Cecil
said.
Cecil said adding flights
and airlines are a possibility for the near future. He added the
airport would like to end the revenue agreement with American Airlines
first.
Source: http://kbia.org
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