COLUMBIA — Officials announced new flights out of the Columbia Regional Airport at a news conference Tuesday morning.
An announcement on the website of Allegiant Air listed two new flights to and from Florida. One flight will go to and from Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, and the other will fly to and from Orlando Sanford International Airport. The flights, according to the Airline's website, are scheduled to begin in early June.
A news release from Allegiant Air said flights to Orlando Sanford will begin June 3, and one-way fares will be as low as $59. Flights to Destin-Fort Walton Beach will begin June 5, and one-way fares will be as low as $59, according to the release.
A goal of growth
COU saw its busiest month ever in October in terms of departing passengers, and the airport saw 28,810 total travelers that month. United Airlines' new daily flights along with American Airlines' routes to Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago helped drive the increase.
Airport Manager Mike Parks said the strong numbers show travelers are confidently choosing their local airport and now have better access to destinations nationwide. Columbia Regional Airport is also preparing for a busy Thanksgiving week, expecting more than 5,000 travelers.
“More people are using Columbia than they’ve ever used Columbia before," Parks said. "We’ve continued to have conversations with American, which is a great partner of Columbia, about Charlotte. We’ll continue having those conversations and seeing what the demand shows as we move forward.”
COU officials hope the addition will make the airport more competitive against the St. Louis Lambert International Airport and the Kansas City International Airport.
“Ticket prices continue to be extremely competitive with our neighbors to the west and the east of Columbia, so we’d like to remind people that getting this service is fantastic, it’s super exciting, we’re very excited to have United and Allegiant on board now, but we need to make sure that we’re filling all those seats,” Parks said.
Buffaloe said the new routes will serve both leisure and business travelers.
“The ease of transfer from here to Florida straight will help out so many of those families," Buffaloe said. "Orlando is a really popular place for business conferences and so we know in the mid-Missouri area, we’re often seeing people flying out to attend their national conferences — looking forward to having a direct connection for that.”
The mayor also provided updates on upcoming airport improvements, such as the parking changes.
“We are about done on finishing the renovations on the west side of airport drive. Those were thankfully in partnership with FAA … We will soon start the north improvement lots. The hope is by the time you’re flying out to Florida in June, you’ll be able to park on paved parking wherever it is we go."
The Federal Aviation Administration has allocated more than $5.9 million total to COU as a part of the Airport Infrastructure Grant program.
Announced projects have received congressional approval and will be awarded a grant once all statutory and administrative requirements are finalized.
COU was awarded more than $229,000 to update its master plan through the program, and $1.3 million has been announced for the airport to reconstruct its parking lot.
Buffaloe said additional upgrades are still needed.
“I think our next thing is we need to build out bigger hangars for the planes to be in overnight," Buffaloe said. Finding space for that is one of our next infrastructure projects."
Airport Advisory Board Chair Randa Rawlins emphasized the regional impact of continued growth.
“All of those people understand how important our airport is for the economic development in Columbia," Rawlins said. "We are so fortunate to continue to break the ice on adding a new service — it was great to have United come back to Columbia, but this opens up a new frontier for us, adding a new airline and new service.”
