Branson Airport Gets Its First Tenant: AirTran

(MoneyWatch)  Last month, I wrote about the all new, federal funding-free Branson Airport that's popping up on hills in the Ozarks. Yesterday, the airport announced that it now has its first tenant. AirTran will fly to the airport once daily from Atlanta.

I must say that I'm only a little surprised at this one. I really thought that Frontier and some of their new Q400 turboprops would end up flying into the airport first. It's the perfect distance for the Q400 and the operating costs are low. But alas, AirTran beat them to it. Why was I only a little surprised? Well, AirTran is always happy to jump on a subsidy or special deal.

Branson says there are no subsidies, but that's because there doesn't need to be a single enplanement cost across all airlines using the facility as in other places. So, we know that Branson said it was charging $7 per enplanement, but we don't know how much AirTran is actually paying. If it's lower, would it be a subsidy? Not in the technical sense.

We do know that AirTran has exclusivity on the Atlanta route for now, so that fends off any thoughts Delta might have had to get in there. And with Delta's penchant for flying to any place on earth with a runway these days, that might not have been too far off. But AirTran is definitely a solid airline to land as your first tenant, and I actually think this could work well for both sides. Now let's see if Branson can attract a few more. It'll need it to reach its first year targets, but this is a good start.