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City Council Approves New Airport Terminal

Meiying Wu

The Columbia City Council voted unanimously to move forward with plans for a new $20 million terminal building at the Columbia Regional Airport at its meeting Monday night. City staff estimates that construction will begin this summer and end in spring 2022.

In a July meeting, the council made an agreement with Burns & McDonnell for engineering and architectural services on the terminal. The 60,000 square foot building will be located south of the existing terminal and east of Airport Drive.

The $20 million will go towards the first phase of the project, which includes constructing the shell of the terminal, a travel security area and outbound baggage system. The second phase, which the city estimates will cost about $12-15 million, will include building office spaces for airline and rental car agencies.

Mayor Brian Treece expressed some concern with the flow of traffic between the old and new terminals during construction. Passengers would have to drop their baggage off at the old terminal before walking to the new one for their flights.

“It seems counterintuitive to build a building that is four times as big as the existing terminal and then require all of our existing enplanements to enter through that existing terminal building and walk to the new building,” Treece said.

City workers hope this project will accommodate the growing number of people flying in and out of the airport’s only terminal. Chamber of Commerce President Matt McCromick spoke in favor of the new terminal, saying the current facility has “outlived” its ability to serve the volume passengers coming through the airport.

“The current facility will quickly and pretty well has outlived its service and its ability to service the passengers in an efficient and effective manner,” McCormick said. “And therefore, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce is asking you to support the construction of the new airport terminal.”

The $20 million award is locally-sourced, with $14.2 million of it coming from local bonds and transportation sales tax.