Branson Airport faces uncertainty as Sun Country mulls return

Stan Field: Branson Airport hopes Sun Country will come back next season.

The 15-year-old Branson Airport is at a critical juncture as its only commercial airline considers whether to return to the tourist market.

Sun Country Airlines, operated by Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: SNCY), had its last day of scheduled seasonal service between Branson and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on July 28, according to a company spokesperson.

“We likely will be announcing our 2025 summer schedule in November, so that’s when information on a potential return will be available,” the spokesperson told Springfield Business Journal via email.

Sun Country Airlines, which previously operated at Branson Airport around its launch in 2009, returned to the airport in August 2023, with twice-weekly flights through mid-November, according to past reporting. Seasonal service resumed this spring.

Branson Airport Executive Director Stan Field said Sun Country Airlines operated as planned between Branson and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“Sun Country posted their schedule almost a year ago, and they operated all of the Branson flights they had on their schedule,” Field said via email. “Sun Country is a great airline, and we hope they decide to come back next season.”

Private flights are currently the only option at Branson Airport.

Grant assistance
Sun Country’s service at Branson Airport has been supported by a $500,000 Small Community Air Service Development Program grant awarded to Branson Airport in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In announcing the grant award in August 2022, Branson Airport officials said community matching funds of $400,000 were required, making $900,000 available for air service support and marketing.

In its publicly available grant application filed in 2022, Branson Airport officials indicated the funding would be used to develop and implement a minimum revenue guarantee program.

“One of the challenges facing air service expansion is that the airport is relatively new and has limited historical (origin and destination) data available for use by airline planning departments. A MRG program will be extremely helpful to overcome this challenge and induce airlines to take on the risk of new air service,” the grant application reads. “A MRG agreement is needed to get the decision over the hump.”

Branson Airport officials in the application cited the need for a new commercial airline following the 2014 exit of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), which was met with fanfare during its time in the market. After the federal grant application was submitted, Denver-based Frontier Airlines chose not to renew service at Branson Airport for the second time in the airport’s history.

In the application, officials with Branson Airport said the funding would help it “provide momentum” toward securing additional services.

“That is the real benefit to the community and traveling public,” the application reads. “Our businesses, hospitals and educational facilities in Branson need to be able to travel in the U.S. to further their own operations.”

Further, the application pointed to a 2013 study by the state of Missouri that found Branson Airport directly contributed $91 million to the local economy in its first four years of operation, with an average visitor spend of $628.

As of the submitted application, the airport had roughly 627,000 enplanements since inception.

Historical look
Branson Airport has historically operated in the red, according to past reporting and documents on file with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

The privately financed airport was built for $148 million and recorded tens of millions of dollars in losses during its first few years in business. Operating income was briefly in the black in 2013, when Southwest Airlines entered the market, SBJ previously reported.

Partial records on file with the MSRB show losses of $3.9 million and $3.3 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. A January 2024 budget proposal on file projects net revenues after capital expenditures to be in the red this year in the amount of $313,827.

Field declined to provide further data, deferring to the information on file with the MSRB.

Adding to the financial complexity is hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bonds that organizers secured leading up to the 2009 opening of the airport, according to past reporting.

The airport last year missed a bond payment after a 2018 settlement resulted in new bonds for Branson Airport, SBJ previously reported. The status appears to be unchanged, with no additional filings regarding the missed payments on record with the MSRB.

Asked about the airport’s bonds, Field said, “We have a strong relationship with our bondholders.”

UMB Bank, the bond trustee, in February posted a notice to bondholders indicating Branson Airport could become eligible for “potentially significant federal funding for major maintenance and upgrades to infrastructure at the airport,” specifically the Airport Improvement Plan and Investment Partnership Program administered by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The notice states that 40 acres of undeveloped land would have to be transferred by Branson Airport to Taney County for the benefit of bondholders to qualify for the federal funding.

“To participate in the grant programs, the transportation district that includes the airport must meet Federal Aviation Administration requirements as a public board, and to obtain that status, Taney County, Missouri, which owns 422 acres of the 922 acres that comprise the transportation district, must augment that land by approximately 40 acres. The company, as the owner of substantially all of the real property that comprises thetransportation district not owned by the county, plans to transfer to the county 40 acres of land that is not used in the operation of the airport and that has remained undeveloped since the airport opened in 2009,” the notice reads. “That land is currently subject to a deed of trust associated with the bonds. The company believes the financial benefits to the airport from these programs will vastly exceed any value of the land at issue.”