The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Advisory Board was told Tuesday by an industry expert the COVID-19 pandemic "devastated the entire travel industry, not just the airlines," but believes the country is in "an accelerated recovery" following the loss of 120,000 airline jobs in 2020.

Mike Mooney, managing partner of Volaire Aviation Consulting, told the local board no fewer than 18 airlines have either shutdown or gone bankrupt as a result of COVID-19's economic impact and America overall had 416 fewer domestic non-stop routes as of January compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Locally

The Cape Girardeau Regional Airport total passenger volume, or enplanements, for March stood at 450, still down from a year ago, but the trend is unmistakably upward. There were 265 enplanements in January and 286 in February.

"Our numbers are really starting to pick up," airport manager Katrina Amos said.

"We've had (passenger) loads of 20, 15, 24 -- and that's only continued in the past couple of weeks," she added. "I really do expect us to continue to grow and get back to some sort of normalcy."

Amos, who has worked at the airport since 2008 and became its leader in February 2020, agrees with Mooney when it comes to one important sector of air travel.

"I don't anticipate business travelers to come back anytime soon because of the ability to Zoom," she said.

"I'm really concerned the Zoom habit may have changed the social habits of road warriors," Mooney said, using the term "road warriors" to describe frequent pre-pandemic air travelers.

"If 'road warriors' make 50% fewer trips, air carriers may have to chase more leisure traffic," he added.

Mooney set a projection for 7,400 enplanements in calendar year 2021 for the airport.

Amos said she is "hopeful" that figure can be achieved before year-end if the current trend continues.

Pre-pandemic, the airport hit 24,000 enplanements (inbound and outbound combined) in 2019, a figure Mooney suggested may well be achievable again "in a couple of years."

Amos said it remains a goal to get to 10,000 outbound passengers to be considered by the federal government as a "primary" airport.

In 2019, the city of Cape Girardeau-owned airport located in Scott County was designated as "primary" for the first time, enabling the facility to receive up to $1 million in federal airport improvement funding.

TAMP OK'd

The Federal Aviation Administration, Amos informed the board, has now approved the Terminal Access Master Plan (TAMP).

TAMP will be put out for bid, at the latest, by February or March.

The FAA had already given its conditional approval to the airport's plan to build a new passenger terminal in the northeast quadrant of the property.

Amos said an "owner's representative" will be selected shortly, and airport staff and the FAA have identified three projects that could be completed in 2021: new T-hangars, a new fuel farm and taxiway Bravo.

EAS

The current two-year Essential Air Service contract with SkyWest Airlines expires Nov. 30.

EAS was established in the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act to guarantee small communities would continue to be served by certified airlines to maintain a minimum level of air service.

"I'm confident SkyWest will resubmit an EAS bid and we're likely to see several nine-seat operators make a bid and possibly a RJ (regional jet) operator," said Mooney, who advises airport staff as a consultant.

Amos concurs with the assessment.

"I do think in light of the pandemic, the Cape Girardeau market will have a lot more interest this bidding cycle," she said.