Airport closure likely to cause lost hotel taxes

EDITOR’S NOTE: The calculations in this story are based on the airport’s 1 percent portion of total revenue from the city’s hotel sales tax and thus capture revenue from all hotel users, not just those who come to Columbia via the airport.

The city of Columbia could lose more than $13,000 in hotel revenue with Columbia Regional Airport’s weeklong closure to all air traffic.

According to COU passenger load data, the city made $55,101 from its 5 percent lodging tax in April 2018. That means the city made roughly $13,775 each week from the tax that month.

That April, Columbia Regional Airport saw 20,617 passengers board and/or offload from an airplane. Of those passengers, 6,335 flew with United Airlines and 14,262 flew American Airlines. According to 2019 data for January and February, the boarding and offloading numbers this year are up by close to 1,000 passengers from the same time period in 2018.

The airport will also lose it’s revenue from the landing fees it charges. According to airport officials, the airport charges $0.62 per 1000 pounds for landing fees. Assuming flights come in and out of COU seven days a week, the airport could be losing close to $1,600 just on those fees.

City leaders announced the runway at the airport would close to traffic for a week while repairs are made to a structure known as a crown that helps water drain from the runway. Commercial planes began landing on the runway, 13-31, after the main runway was closed April 1 for rehabilitation. Pilots quickly started to complain about the crown causing a rough landing, leading air carriers to cancel flights and the city to make the decision to reconstruction the crown to smooth out the rought landings.

ABC 17 News has contacted city officials to learn more about the potential revenue impacts on the city from the weeklong commercial flight shutdown but had not hear back early Tuesday afternoon.