Ongoing renovations to facilities around the Columbia Regional Airport, just north of Ashland, remain on schedule and will likely be finished by 2021 or 2022.
Stacy Button, president of Columbia’s economic development arm Regional Economic Development Inc., and Mike Parks, Columbia Regional Airport manager, updated a crowd of about 3 dozen people Friday morning on the progress of the renovations. Button and Missy Bonnot, Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce director of economic development, said the airport helps the entire Mid-Missouri economy.
The $30 million renovation will expand the parking area by about 200 parking spaces, lengthen the airport’s main runway from 6,500 feet to 7,400 feet and build a new airport terminal.
“The hope has always been that we will open the new terminal at the end of 2021 or the first part of 2022,” Button said.
Airport officials previously identified a site on the northwest part of the airport as the location of its new terminal. That plan ran into complications because new taxiways and infrastructure would need to be built to serve that site.
Instead, the airport plans to build a new terminal next to its existing location near the center of the property. The new 45,000-square-foot terminal will be about three times the size of the existing 16,000-square-foot terminal. Construction will likely begin in 2020, Button said.
Through November, 111,581 passengers traveled through the airport, Parks said. About 120,000 people are expected to use the airport this year, up from just 24,843 in 2009. About 30 percent of travelers come from Cole County and areas surrounding Jefferson City, Button and Parks told the News Tribune.
Bonnot said the nearby airport serves as a big tool when the city tries to attract new businesses.
“A lot of times, when companies are looking at communities, they want to be within an hour of an airport,” she said.