Larger American Airline planes will start flying out of Columbia Regional Airport to Chicago and Dallas early next year.
"Our airport does appear to be expanding and we are very happy about that. That's been our objective and that's been the objective of the mayor and the Council all along," Airport Advisory Board member Leon Hoffsette said.
The larger planes will add about 15 seats per flight, which is expected to cause congestion in the terminals. Hoffsette said that the board thinks they will be able to operate with the additional passengers, but they need to begin to consider ways to accommodate future expansions.
"We just need to start preparing for that because it does take a long time to get those changes into effect."
Chair of the Airport Advisory Board Greg Cecil says that the board wants to build a new terminal, but that project will take time and money.
Since the new planes will begin to fly out of Columbia Regional Airport in January, Cecil said that they need to find smaller ways to adjust the existing terminal.
"With the new plane capacity we are going to be bursting at the seams and we want to make sure that our customer service experience is as good as possible," Cecil said.
The board is discussing smaller ways to accommodate passengers such as moving chairs and layouts around.
