5,000 USE AIRPORT, HIT MARK FOR TWE

The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport will have an opportunity to celebrate an anniversary, a name change and Trans World Express's record-setting year during Sunday's open house.

The open house is being held from noon to 4 p.m. to mark the one-year anniversary of the new airport terminal building.

Various travel agencies, the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, The Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, the FAA, Air Evac Aviation and the Pilot's Club at the airport will be represented at the open house.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department and Fire Department will also be on hand with a firetruck and K-9 unit. Air Evac Inc., the new fixed-base operator, will display its helicopters and airplanes at the open house. In addition, KBSI Fox 23's Kids Clubhouse will be set up for the open house.

TWE has already surpassed last year's enplanement record of 4,954 passengers. Interim Airport Manager Andy Perry said the record was set this month.

Perry said TWE has already exceeded 400 boardings in October. "We only needed 370 to break the old record, so we were virtually assured of doing that in the final three months," Perry said. TWE should surpass 5,000 boardings by the end of the month.

The Cape Girardeau Airport manager attributes the record-setting year mainly to an aggressive marketing campaign which targeted travel agencies within a 100-mile radius.

"The airport has a very good relationship with the travel agencies that send their business our way," Perry said. "We're getting a higher percentage of passengers from towns 80 miles or more away from Cape Girardeau right now."

Thus the need for a name change from Cape Municipal Airport to Cape Regional. The Cape Girardeau City Council approved the name change at its Oct. 10 meeting.

The estimated cost of changing various signs on the airport property and terminal is $2,400.

The Airport Board also has recommended studying the possibility of installing a 32-foot highway sign on I-55. At the last Airport Board meeting, Perry showed a drawing of an informational highway sign that General Sign has already devised. Beneath the lighted sign were "strip signs" indicating businesses and services located on the airfield. These would be lit from the bottom.

The sign could be purchased by the city for between $24,000 and $28,000 compared to $45,000 for a new sign.

Several suggestions were given on ways to finance the sign, including selling or leasing space to airfield businesses, forming a cooperative agreement with companies that have national offices such as Hertz and National Car Rental, and starting a Friends of the Airport group. The Friends of the Airport group would help pay for the cost of a sign with contributions.

Several gifts will be given away at the open house. Drawings will be held at 4 p.m. Winners are not required to be present to collect their prize.

Among the gifts will be an item from the Hertz gift shop, a gift from National Car Rental, two one-year memberships in Air Evac Lifeteam Air Ambulance, a $100 travel certificate from Allied Travel and two $50 gift certificates from Designing Travel.

A weekend trip to St. Louis will be given away by Elite Travel along with two round-trip tickets to Chicago on TWE. The FAA will also have coloring books for kids as well as career opportunity brochures.