Columbia’s Mayor says mid-Missouri’s busiest airport is in need for expansions and upgrades.

Mayor Bob McDavid says an expansion and upgrades to Columbia Regional Airport is important. Having lost economic opportunities in the past, it’s a focus of the University of Missouri to continue to grow by recruiting out of state students as well as international students.

 “So it’s important for us that we make it easy for these students to get in and out of mid-Missouri,” he says. “And for that reason we started our initiative that we call ’40 in 2020.’ We want a 40 percent market share by the year 2020- and if we achieve that; that will probably require 600 passenger planes departing Columbia Regional Airport every day.”

The need for the expansion is also due to the increase in the number of daily passenger capacity from 126 passengers a day up to 202 passengers a day, as of the first of April. “And it’s our goal to try to continue that and our sights are on 600 passengers a day,” he says.

McDavid says the expansion would cost 50 million dollars in federal funds.

 

AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports. (1:01)