Columbia Regional Airport is a city-run regional layer

Flights out of COU feel like a Boone County service because the terminal sits in the Columbia orbit. The operating layer is city government. Columbia Regional Airport is owned and operated by the City of Columbia, under the City Manager’s Office, with airport staff handling administration, terminal and field maintenance, custodial work, and safety.

That helps sort the right doorway. Parking, terminal, airline, master-plan, and airport-improvement questions belong with Columbia Regional Airport and the City of Columbia. County offices in downtown Columbia are not the operating desk for COU.

The airport’s regional feel is still real. Its advisory board reviews budgets, capital projects, customer experience, passenger demand, marketing, and master planning, with voting members and liaison seats. COU’s 2022 terminal expansion is another clue that this is a city-run facility serving a wider Columbia-area travel market.