Thursday, December 03, 2015

City completes runway intersection improvements at Columbia Regional Airport (KCOU): Passenger loads nearing records

The city recently completed runway intersection maintenance and construction work at Columbia Regional Airport in the midst of an ongoing increase in travelers flying out of Columbia.

The runway maintenance project, which involved demolishing and repaving the airport’s two runways, was part of a larger plan to extend and improve the runways to bring the airport in line with federal safety regulations. The runway improvements are a multimillion-dollar investment on the part of the Federal Aviation Administration and city of Columbia.

The FAA has funded about 90 percent of the work at the airport through grants amounting to about $4.41 million, according to a news release. The city has funded about 10 percent of the construction, or $490,000, through its transportation sales tax.

Future infrastructure improvements at the airport will include repositioning, rebuilding and lengthening the crosswind runway as well as lengthening the main runway.

The project was completed as passenger use of the airport exceeded annual totals from 2014 and the airport reported some of its highest traffic since the federal government deregulated the airline industry.

The number of passengers who passed through the airport from January to October exceeded the number of passengers for all of 2014. With 2015 enplanements and deplanements through November at about 60,000, the airport’s annual passenger totals are expected to approach the record of 67,500 set in 1978.

Passenger loads took a steady dive after 1978, when federal regulation of the airline industry was dismantled and some of the airport’s regional carriers were absorbed by larger companies, Public Works spokesman Steve Sapp said. The airport reported some of its lowest passenger use in 2001, with only 9,090 boarding airplanes that year.

City officials repeatedly have said they would like the airport to capture 40 percent of the nearby passenger market by 2020. According to a study of passenger demand, Columbia Regional Airport’s demand area includes more than 900 potential passengers every day. Capturing 40 percent of the market would require the airport to accommodate about 360 enplanements and deplanements daily.

As it stands, the airport cannot handle 360 passengers daily. Sapp said the airport is running out of terminal space to hold passengers, and the current plane sizes — about 50 passengers per regional jet — mean the airport can only serve about 200 passengers daily.

Sapp said Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American Airlines, plans to return to using 65-passenger jets in the spring. He said the change in airplane size would allow the airport to serve 260 passengers daily with its current flight schedule.

“Smaller jets is a temporary situation,” Sapp said. “We’ve certainly shown to them the demand is there” for bigger planes.

The city is working with consulting firm Parson Brinckerhoff to draft plans for a new or expanded terminal. City officials have said they would like to add another flight destination outside of the current service to Dallas and Chicago.

Another destination “is something we’ve talked about and hopefully we will see in the future,” City Manager Mike Matthes said in a recent interview.

- Story and photo:  http://www.columbiatribune.com

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