Columbia, Mo. is growing, no question about it. Between the constant influx of new students at the University of Missouri, Stephens and Columbia Colleges, professors, business owners, scientists, journalists, artists and many other unique residents are adding to the population of Columbia.
The city saw a population boom from around 109,000 in 2010 to 121,000 in 2017. Throughout the area, the construction of new buildings is a common sight. But while the infrastructure in Columbia is improving to fit the needs of a larger city, about 12 miles to the south of Mizzou, the Columbia Regional Airport (COU) remains stagnant, but not in passenger numbers.
In 2017, 88,000 passengers departed out of COU with that number increasing to 100,790 as of May 2018. That’s a growth rate of 14.5 percent in less than a year. For comparison, in 2014, there were only around 42,300 departing passengers, which in total means that passenger numbers in the past four years have gone up by a staggering 138 percent. In order to compensate, two airlines now fly to Columbia, United, and American, with a total of three destinations, offered to COU passengers: Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver.
Any visitors to COU know the terminal building itself is about the size of a gas station, with little to no space to sit down and plan out one’s itinerary, or even just to put down carry on bags. The city of Columbia, however, insists that this is all about to change. In 2009, the “Terminal Area Master Plan” , an initiative to improve COU’s infrastructure including runways and a brand new terminal building and in 2015, the plan finally was approved. But construction never began and nearly 10 years since the conception of the master plan, bureaucratic inefficiency has held back the long-awaited new terminal and updated runways. The lack of the plan being put into action leaves Columbia passengers with little to no choice but to drive to St. Louis or Kansas City to catch their flights.