Branson Airport

Opening

Prior to construction of Branson Airport, the closest commercial service airport was Springfield-Branson National Airport 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Branson. That airport is owned by the city of Springfield, Missouri.

The formal grand opening was May 8–10, 2009 during which the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds performed during an air show. The first scheduled passenger flight arrived the following day, on May 11, 2009 from Minneapolis-St. Paul operated by Sun Country Airlines with a Boeing 737 jetliner.

There were two airlines operating at the time of Branson's opening, AirTran Airways and Sun Country Airlines. Sun Country Airlines ceased all operations into Branson in March 2010. AirTran was acquired and merged into Southwest Airlines which in turn then ceased serving Branson in June 2014.

Flight history

Frontier Airlines launched flights to Branson Airport with daily service to Denver as well as seasonal less than daily service to Milwaukee, which was formerly served from Branson through AirTran.

ExpressJet also operated flights under an independent brand known as Branson Air Express to several markets utilizing Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets supporting point-to-point transit.

On February 23, 2011 Branson Airport's largest carrier, AirTran Airways announced they would be adding flights from Branson to Baltimore, Chicago-Midway and Houston-Hobby. All flights were announced to be year round.

As of August, 2012 Branson Airport was served with six nonstop departures a day with more than 100 possible connections.

On August 27, 2012, Southwest Airlines announced they would be taking over all AirTran flights at the airport on March 9, 2013. Southwest flew Boeing 737 jetliners nonstop to Chicago-Midway, Dallas-Love, Houston-Hobby and previously flew Saturday only flights to Orlando–International. Southwest Airlines then ended all service into the airport on June 7, 2014.

On February 24, 2014, Frontier Airlines announced that their Branson to Denver service would be upgraded from seasonal to daily beginning June 9, 2014. However, service was ended in October 2014 and the airline announced it would not return in 2015.

On April 3, 2014, Buzz Airways, announced new nonstop service to both Chicago-Midway and Houston-Hobby airports that began June 12, 2014, replacing the lost Southwest Airlines service. As of December 2014, this service was operated by Elite Airways with Canadair CRJ regional jet aircraft. Service to Chicago-Midway has since terminated.

On December 23, 2014, Branson AirExpress announced flights operated by Elite Airways and Buzz Airways will continue in 2015 to Chicago-Midway, (MDW) Houston-Hobby (HOU), Austin (AUS) and Denver (DEN). On January 28, 2015, Branson AirExpress announced it would add an additional operator, Orange Air, flying McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jetliners nonstop to Cincinnati (CVG) and New Orleans (MSY) with direct, one stop service to Cancun, Mexico (CUN) via New Orleans from the Branson Airport starting May 6, 2015. On October 5, 2015 the Cincinnati leg of the Orange Air route was terminated, and the Branson-New Orleans-Cancun portion of the route was transferred to Elite Airways.

Accidents and incidents

On January 12, 2014, a Southwest flight landed at the similarly-situated M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport nearby instead of the intended one during a nighttime landing in clear weather. Flight 4013 from Midway Airport in Chicago to Branson Airport was a Boeing 737-700 with 129 passengers and crew. The Clark airport, located about 7 miles northwest near Hollister, Missouri, is primarily for private aviation and has a runway of only 3,738 feet (1,139 m). During the descent, the pilot and co-pilot had identified the Clark airport by its runway lights and made a course correction to land there in error. It was only during the landing that this dangerous situation was recognized and the pilot reacted with heavy braking. The plane had about 40 feet of runway left when it came to a stop, and no one was injured. The plane was flown out the following day, but both pilots were placed on paid leave during the investigation.

Facilities and aircraft

Branson Airport covers an area of 922 acres (373 ha) at an elevation of 1,302 feet (397 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 14/32 with a concrete surface measuring 7,140 by 150 feet (2,176 x 46 m).

Competition

There are some unusual consequences of the airport's private ownership. One such issue is the fact that competition is neither desired nor allowed. When an airline acquires a route to and from the airport, they will generally acquire an exclusive arrangement with Branson Airport, LLC, to serve that destination city. This however does not prevent a carrier from operating to a destination served by Springfield-Branson Airport to the north; for example, AirTran once flew to Atlanta competing with Delta Connection operations to Atlanta from the nearby airport.

"We don’t want suicide fares, two or three airlines bashing each other over the head until someone says ‘uncle’ and leaves," said [CEO Steve] Peet, explaining why the airport agreed to protect the airlines from competition. "We want to build real service, sustainable service."

Development and construction

Branson Airport is located in the Communities of Branson Creek development, a golf/residential complex land formerly belonging to Tennessee Ernie Ford. The land was originally purchased by Glenn Patch, a publisher of Computer Shopper and other magazines, in 1990 when he bought 7,000 acres (28 km²) in the area to develop the Branson Creek complex. Patch sold the 922 acres to Branson Airport, LLC in 2007. Patch also owns the franchise for the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theatre in Branson.

The owners have put the naming rights for the FBO, the terminal, and the entire airport up for sale.

The construction of the airport, which involved the flattening of several Ozark Mountains, is claimed to be the largest earthmoving project in Missouri history. A press release noted that between groundbreaking in July 2007 and May 2008 11 million cubic yards of earth had been moved.

The $155 million project includes a 7,140-foot (2,180 m) by 150-foot (46 m) runway, numbered 14/32, and a 58,000-square-foot (5,400 m²) terminal designed to accommodate 1.4 million passengers a year. The $155 million cost of the building the terminal included $38 million in private equity and $117 million in tax free bonds underwritten by Citigroup. The high-risk, high-yield bonds (top rate of 6.5%) were issued by the Branson Regional Airport Transportation Development District. The City of Branson will pay a subsidy of $8.24 to Branson Airport LLC for each arriving visitor with an annual cap of $2 Million. Given the rates at which the bonds are financed, this subsidy could amount to 20% of the total costs of financing the airport's construction.

The overall developer was AFCO. The Program Manager was Vasey Aviation Group LLC. The master designer was Burns and McDonnell Engineering. McAninch Corporation handled the earth moving operations.

Plans also call for the construction of an 8,000-seat arena and 15,000-seat amphitheater near the airport.