COLUMBIA REGIONAL AIRPORT -- Bigger jets are coming to the Columbia Regional Airport.
Delta Airlines Administrators are adding 50-seat regional jets to the airport’s daily round-trip flight schedule. Turboprop Jets at the Columbia Regional Airport can only seat 34 passengers.
Beginning on Feb. 11, 50-seat regional jets will fly passengers on the last arrival of the day from Memphis International Airport and the first departure of the morning from Columbia Regional Airport. Columbia city officials said the bigger jets are more comfortable and less noisy.
“The plane overnights here," Columbia public works director John Glascock said. "The last flight in will be the jet, of course. It’s a clean-up flight for our business traveler. We have a lot of those that go to D.C. and come back in one day. Then, they fly out early at the six o’clock. We can push more people through that. That’s our heaviest time, I believe.”
Glascock said it’s been almost 10 years since the Columbia Regional Airport had jets that could fly 50 passengers. The number of passengers boarding at Columbia Regional continues to remain high. More than 2,000 passengers have flown out of Columbia during each of the past three months.
“Right now, we’re running with the Saabs," Glascock said. "They are 34 seat planes. They are running about 70 percent to 80 percent full all of the time. With the 50-seat jet, not only is it more comfortable but it will have more seats to sell. We can push more people through Columbia Regional.”
Delta Airline officials are booking flights for their bigger jets that will take off in February.
For more information about flying from Columbia Regional Airport, you can click on the link below.
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