Cape airport boardings barely off the ground

Passengers flying out of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport on SkyWest Airlines these days are having no problem maintaining “social distancing” between themselves and others on their flights.

That’s because Cape Girardeau is averaging only three passengers a day this month on SkyWest’s daily flights to and from Chicago as most would-be business and leisure travelers are staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the first four weeks of May, just 92 people boarded SkyWest’s 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 jets at Cape Girardeau’s airport. However, airport manager Katrina Amos said that’s an improvement over April’s numbers.

“For the month of April, we had just 51 passengers ... total,” she said. “But in the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen an increase in traffic.”

Last year, the Cape Girardeau airport averaged nearly 1,000 outbound passengers a month, and totaled 11,777 for the year.

In the first two months of 2019, the airport was averaging between 150 and 200 passengers a week and was well on its way toward its second straight year of at least 10,000 boardings.

But then the coronavirus began spreading worldwide, grounding thousands of domestic and international flights as people canceled travel plans. SkyWest, which does business as United Express, reduced its flight schedule in and out of Cape Girardeau beginning this month from 12 flights a week to just one per day.

“All of the airlines have been heavily affected and their revenue has decreased significantly, so they’re all trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding,” Amos said, “and one of the ways was to reduce their flight schedules.”

Amos believes the reduced flight schedule is only temporary.

“We’re starting to see an uptick in reservations and we’re extremely excited about that,” she said. “Missouri hasn’t been hit as hard as other regions, so hopefully we can bounce back quicker than other areas.”

Even though more people are starting to book flights, Amos said “we have to be realistic” about the airport’s chances of again reaching the 10,000-passenger plateau this year. That number is important because in past years airports that attained that level of annual boardings qualified for $1 million of federal operational funding.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with that (the 10,000-passenger requirement) this year,” she said. “Certainly our hope is they’ll give consideration to waiving it because of what’s going on in the world and how everybody’s been affected, but honestly there hasn’t been a lot of talk about it at this point.”

Although the airport may not qualify for a million-dollar subsidy this year, Amos said the airport is still in line to receive $17.5 million in federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. That money, Amos said, can be used for operational and maintenance costs at the airport as well as several facility needs including terminal, tower and hanger improvements.

“We have several projects in mind, but we’re not going to set them in stone because we don’t have the money yet,” she said.

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