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JEFFERSON CITY -- The Jefferson City airport, the smaller location that deals strictly with private planes, saw more aircraft than Columbia's larger, commercial airport.

Here are the numbers: the Jefferson City airport saw 25,066 take-offs and landings in 2009.

Columbia came in just below that mark, with 24,940 planes. 

Jefferson City has actually surpassed Columbia's aircraft totals the past two years. But numbers are down overall for both locations.

"The traffic count for every airport, not only in the State of Missouri, but nationwide has been showing a trend that it has gone down over the last decade," Jefferson City Airport Manager Ron Craft said. "I think most of that can be attributed to the economy."

Craft said business is good at the Jefferson City airport for one reason: location, location, location.

"We're basically a downtown airport, just across the river from the state capitol," Craft said. "They can fly in here to Jefferson City and drive to the meeting location in five to 10 minutes."

Despite the airport's prime location, officials in Jefferson City said they don't have any plans to change the way business is done and that includes seeking out a commercial carrier.

Craft said Jefferson City officials are content to leave that business to Columbia.

"Columbia, they provide the scheduled airline traffic for the region," Craft said. "The segment of traffic that we're after is the corporate and general aviation type aircraft."

Craft tells Mallory some of the corporate jets that fly into the Jefferson City airport are just as large as some small commercial airliners.

The Jefferson City airport also sees quite a bit of military air traffic.

Here's a month-by-month breakdown of each airport's 2009 aircraft totals: