On Monday February 24, 2014, members of Columbia Rotary welcomed Dan Mann, Executive Director of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE). Rotarian Anne Sinclair introduced Mr. Mann to our Club.
The club first watched a Saturday Night Live spoof on the TSA, which drew a large laugh from the crowd. Mr. Mann talked about the four recent mergers in the airline industry and how it would affect CAE. During his four years, Mr. Mann has reduced costs at the airport, which was essential into helping the airport grow. Debt has been reorganized, which has lowered costs in addition to the CAE staff being cut from 120 employees to the current size of 66 (which is industry average for the size of CAE). Costs per passenger has been lowered from $12 to passenger to $10 per passenger.
$23 million in projects have occurred in the last four years at CAE, and the airport plans to spend $30 million more the next four years. Currently, the airport is working on a grant for expansion of the John Hardy Expressway.
The Columbia Rotary is thankful to have had Mr. Mann speak at our club.
Sincere thanks to Thomas Anderson for writing the recap this week.