Markets

Branson Announces Fourth Destination, Still Short of Plan

By Brett Snyder

Updated on: March 19, 2009 / 10:02 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Branson's new, privately-funded airport has been on a roll. The airport just announced that Sun Country will begin serving Dallas/Ft Worth, the fourth destination for the airport which opens in just over a month. This is great news for the airport, though it is still going to end up short of plan without more service.

So far, AirTran and Sun Country will be serving the airport as follows:

AirTran to Atlanta - once daily with 117-seat 717s
AirTran to Milwaukee - once daily with 117-seat 717s
Sun Country to Minneapolis/St Paul - thrice weekly with 162-seat 737s
Sun Country to Dallas/Ft Worth - thrice weekly with 162-seat 737s

That means there are more than 2,500 seats per week, or about 135,000 per year. The airport's plan, as told to me last October, was for 180,000 enplanements in the first year. Obviously, that's impossible as it stands now, but another couple flights would make it happen.

It will be interesting to see if they can entice more carriers to join in. The north and south/southeast seems to be covered well, but there's probably still opportunity for flights to the west (Denver?) and maybe to the northeast as well.