Columbia Regional Airport’s (COU) manager and Columbia Regional Economic Development Incorporated (REDI) president Stacey Button will be heading to Arizona next week to meet with American and other airlines to discuss additional service from COU. Airport manager Michael Parks looks forward to the conversations.
“So Stacey (Button) and I are actually traveling to Arizona to meet with the airlines the end of this month. We’re going to continue our conversations with American,” Parks says.
Airport manager Parks confirms one of the issues he and Ms. Button will be discussing is service from COU to Charlotte. Mr. Parks tells 939 the Eagle that he’s optimistic.
“We do have the (federal) Department of Transportation grant, the small community air service development grant. We’ll utilize that grant for Charlotte service, which is twice-daily service. We do not have any specific dates yet, but we’ll continue the conversations with American to see when that is a possibility,” says Parks.
American Airlines made a pre-pandemic commitment to provide twice-daily service from COU to Charlotte. Columbia Regional Airport has received a federal grant to assist with the startup for that service. Mr. Parks can now tout COU’s $23-million new terminal, which is 52,000 square feet. That compares to the old 16,000 square feet terminal that was built in 1968.
Mr. Parks notes a pilot shortage is impacting all airlines. He tells 939 the Eagle that he and Ms. Button continue to work with United, American and others regarding additional service at COU. American announced last week they’ll be adding additional flights to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and to Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) this spring.
