Airport boardings taking off this summer

Although they haven't quite returned to pre-pandemic levels, monthly boardings at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport are once again nearing the 1,000 passenger mark.

In fact, more people took off from Cape Girardeau in May and June (1,751) than during the first four months of 2021 (1,590) as the air travel industry continues its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a meeting of Cape Girardeau's Airport Advisory Board on Tuesday, airport manager Katrina Amos reported 850 passengers boarded flights on SkyWest Airlines, doing business as United Express, from Cape Girardeau to Chicago in May. In June that number increased to 901.

That's not quite up to 2019's record-setting pace when monthly boardings routinely topped 1,000, but it's far better than the same months last year. In May 2020 just 88 passengers boarded outbound commercial flights out of Cape Girardeau and last June there were 177 boardings.

"We've been doing extremely well the last couple of months, both on the general aviation side and the airline side," Amos told the Advisory Board.

On Monday of this week, she said, there were 27 passengers on both of SkyWest's Chicago-bound flights. "And that's better than where we were prior to the pandemic. If we continue on this trajectory, we might hit 8,000 passengers this year."

That would exceed the projection of 7,400 boardings an aviation consultant suggested to airport board members in April before the uptick in passenger departures over the past two months. The airport set a record for boardings in 2019 with 11,777.

But based on travel trends before the pandemic, the airport's monthly boarding numbers will likely decline starting in August.

"Once school starts, we'll probably see a decrease in vacation travel for sure, but I'm hopeful business travel will start to pick up and make up some of that difference," Amos said.

SEMO's hangar needs

Something that is not expected to decrease, Amos told the board, is activity resulting from Southeast Missouri State University's new pilot training program.

Because of a high level of interest in the program, Amos said the university will be basing more aircraft -- a fleet of approximately nine Cessna 172 airplanes -- at the airport as early as this fall.

"I thought it might be next year," she reported to the board and said she and the airport staff are working to find adequate hangar space for the university's planes.

"It's a good problem to have," Amos said. "We need (more) hangars and it can't happen soon enough."

August B-25 visit

Among other discussion items at Monday's board meeting, it was reported a World War II vintage B-25 Mitchel bomber, one of only a few dozen in existence still airworthy, will be at the airport for a week during the last half of August

More details about the aircraft's Cape Girardeau visit, including specific dates and information about booking short flights on the bomber, will be released as they become available.

Looking for more business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Go to semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.