State grant aids effort to boost passenger boardings at Cape airport

The City of Cape Girardeau will receive an $80,000 state block grant to promote air passenger service and help boost airport boardings.

The city council is expected to give final approval to an ordinance executing a grant agreement at its meeting today.

With the city�s match included, total funding will be $88,889, airport manager Bruce Loy said Friday.

Loy said the money will be used to pay for advertising and marketing of United Express flights out of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport as well as pay for a consultant to research the air passenger industry and look at ways to boost boardings.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded the grant for the current fiscal year that began July 1, Loy said.

The grant was among about $1 million in grants awarded to airports throughout the state, he said.

�The funds will be used to market our airline service and determine possible methods and promotions available to increase our passenger boardings,� Loy said in a council agenda report.

Loy said the goal is to boost annual passenger boardings at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to the 10,000 level. The city would be guaranteed $1 million in federal funding for eligible airport projects for every year it meets that 10,000 boardings threshold, Loy said.

Since the start of this year, passenger boardings have increased 24 percent, Loy said.

Through the first six months of 2018, there were nearly 4,500 boardings at the Cape Girardeau airport, city records show.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641