Branson Airport welcomes first Frontier aircraft

Officials from Frontier Airlines will be at Branson Airport on Tuesday afternoon to usher in the airline's first flight into Branson.

Frontier will offer nonstop service to and from Denver International Airport four times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Passengers will be able to connect directly to 50 additional destinations from Denver, according to an airport news release.

According to previous Springfield Business Journal coverage, Frontier is adding seven destinations to and from its Denver hub.

The Denver service joins AirTran's direct service to and from Atlanta and Orlando, Fla.  
Branson Airport also plans to offer service to six more destinations through public charter flight services: Houston and Austin, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Shreveport, La.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Gulfport, Miss.

The list had also included Terre Haute, Ind., but that service has been canceled, according to reports first published earlier this month by the Terre Haute Tribune-Star.

The report said that Branson airport officials notified the Terre Haute International Airport Authority that flights were being canceled. Branson Airport Executive Director Jeff Bourk did not give a specific reason for the cancellation, according to the report, but initial bookings totaled just 1.7 percent of available seats for the first three months of flights, the paper said.

Officials from Branson Airport did not immediately return a call seeking comment.