Columbia Regional Airport travel down due to COVID-19

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Numbers for the month of March show travel at Columbia Regional Airport was down nearly 50 percent from the same time last year.

According to COU Passenger Load Factors data, airport travel in March 2020 was down 42.5 percent from March of 2019.

Between February and March, the numbers show enplanements, or the number of people who boarded planes, were down more than 4,000 passengers and deplanements, or the number of people who got off planes, were down roughly 3,500 passengers.

It's not clear how much revenue the airport has lost due to the virus, but City of Columbia spokesman Steve Sapp said earlier this month that the city is looking at ways to recover from the negative impacts.

Sapp also said no airport employees have been laid off because of the drop in travel and he does not expect that to happen because there is always maintenance and other work to do at COU.