Cape plans millions of dollars in airport improvements

City officials plan to spend millions of dollars on improvements to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport over the next several years, including major renovations to the main terminal and fencing in the 630-acre site near Nash Road.

The site also could be expanded in the next few years.

The city wants to buy 60 acres northwest of the airport site to allow for future growth, including new airplane hangars.

All these items depend on securing federal and state aid through the Missouri Department of Transportation to pay for much of the cost, airport manager Bruce Loy said.

The city doesn’t have the money to do these projects on its own, he said. As a result, some projects could stay on the drawing board for years.

Kathy Ford watches a Cape Air flight from St. Louis arrive Tuesday at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Ford was picking up a friend who had flown back from Chicago, with a connecting flight in St. Louis.Laura Simon

The city’s five-year capital-improvements plan calls for spending an estimated $1 million to upgrade the terminal and $1.3 million to surround the airport property with an 8-foot-high, chain-link fence with barbed wire on top.

Those projects are on the drawing board for 2017.

These are just some of the airport projects listed in the capital improvements plan through June 30, 2021.

Loy said the fence would extend 2 feet below ground to prevent animals from digging under it. He said the fence is needed to keep people and animals out.

“We do get coyotes on the airfield,” he said.

The airport site includes 240 acres the city leases out for farming. Buying more land could cost a half-million dollars, city officials estimated.

Loy said the aging airport terminal needs renovations.

The terminal last was remodeled in 1993 at a cost of $1.3 million. The heating and air conditioning system, installed more than 20 years ago, needs to be replaced.

“We have to make repairs almost every two weeks,” he said.

The tile floor has cracked in places. Loy would like to see the floor replaced.

Other improvements would include new furnishings and computer lounges where waiting passengers and visitors could plug in their computers and digital devices, he said. Loy also would like to see the restrooms upgraded.

The capital-improvements plan envisions upgrades to the airport restaurant, too, but Loy cautioned none of these terminal improvement plans has been finalized. Implementation depends on funding, he said.

Securing federal funding is a challenge because the airport has fewer than 10,000 boardings a year. Reaching that threshold would allow the airport to receive $1 million a year in federal funds, Loy said.

Cape Air handled more than 6,100 passenger boardings for commuter flights to St. Louis last year. Charter flights added about 90 flights to the total, Loy said.

Last year’s commercial boardings dipped slightly from 2014, when more than 6,500 passengers boarded flights to St. Louis. Loy suggested a poor economy was partly to blame. In addition, he said, lower fuel prices prompted more people to drive than fly.

But Loy said boardings seem to be rising again.

Even so, the 10,000-boardings figure would be hard to achieve. The airport last reached that plateau in 1998. That year, boardings totaled 11,745. But Loy said that included boardings of Procter & Gamble charter flights. The company no longer operates such charters.

Regional airports such as Cape Girardeau, which don’t reach the boarding threshold, qualify for $150,000 in annual federal funding, Loy said. To pay for major projects, the city has to secure other state and federal grants from MoDOT.

Replacing lighting along the main runway is the major project scheduled for this year, Loy said. The city council on Monday approved a block-grant agreement that calls for MoDOT to pay 90 percent of the nearly $69,000 design cost. The city will pay the other 10 percent. Construction is expected to cost $645,000 and be funded with money from MoDOT.

Loy said the runway lighting was installed in the early 1970s. The light fixtures no longer are manufactured, he said. As a result, the city relies on surplus fixtures from other airports for replacement parts.

The new, quartz lights will provide improved lighting and use less electricity, Loy said. In addition, the new lights will be mounted on light posts about 2 feet above the ground.

The existing, ground-mounted lights pose a problem during heavy snow, Loy said. He said snow plows “bury the lighting fixtures,” making it hard or impossible for pilots to see them at night. Loy said the airport even has been forced to close the runway at night at times because of this problem.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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