General Manager's Welcome

by Chris Harrison

October 3,2008

My first experience with commercial air travel was when I was 14 and took a trip to Hartford, Conn., departing out of Columbia Regional Airport.  I remember how cool it was to walk out on the tarmac, up the rolling staircase and onto what seemed like a very small plane.  After three and a half hours on the cramped, loud and very bumpy flight, the “coolness” had worn off, but I have always remembered my first flight out of Columbia.

Back in Columbia after almost 20 years and close to 200 flights later, I recently traveled via Northwest Airlink from Columbia Regional Airport to Memphis International Airport. What a delightful and quite efficient experience it was.  And although two decades have passed, it seems to me that not much has changed at our local airport.

Over the years, I have made the two-hour drive to St. Louis and Kansas City many times.  I have ridden the shuttle buses from parking lots far, far away, and I have paid $30 per day to park right across from my gate.  I will not lie; I enjoy the convenience and luxury of grabbing a $5 Starbucks to stave off the exhaustion of the drive and the hassle of waiting in endless lines to get through security at many major airports.

For this recent trip though, I made the decision to support our local airport and fly out of Columbia on a 34-seat Saab, 340 turbo-prop airplane.  It was quite convenient to be about 15 minutes from the airport.  Parking……how about 100 yards from the front door……for FREE!  Although there is no Starbucks location, it was quite refreshing to grab a $1 cup of decent coffee from a very nice lady who had a selection of breakfast foods neatly arranged on a fold up card table in front of the ticket counter.  Best of all was being only one of about 25 passengers to empty my pockets to get through security.  Oh, and I failed to mention that I did shop around for the best ticket price to get where I was going and Columbia to Memphis came out on top!

As Jim Muench writes in his story about airport developments on Page 15, the use of the Northwest Airlink passenger service has risen steadily since the first flights on Aug. 19. The airline’s load factor-the percentage of seats sold per flight-in the first month and a half was 59 percent, well above the average 42 percent anticipated by the airline. The flight I was on was more than half full.

While Memphis is likely not the final destination of most travelers, without solid ticket sales to Memphis from Columbia, the airport’s chances of getting another  destination, such as O’Hare in Chicago or Hartsfield in Atlanta, are out of the question.  Please, if you travel and haven’t flown through Columbia Regional in a while, maybe even 20 years, I encourage you to take the 15 minute drive, park for free and grab yourself a dollar cup of “Joe” and get refreshed. Support our local economy by supporting our airport.

chrish@businesstimescompany.com

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