Southwest bringing service to Branson

Southwest Airlines’ iconic blue, red and orange planes are coming to Branson.

Back-to-back announcements from the company this month are welcome news for the fledgling Branson Airport.

In May, Dallas-based Southwest (NYSE:LUV) inked a $1 billion buyout of Orlando, Fla.-based discount airline AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI), which serves five destinations out of Branson: Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta and Orlando.

On Jan. 20, Southwest announced Branson Airport is among the 53 cities out of the 69 AirTran served that will be converted to full Southwest service.

“This is something we’ve been working on for a long time, but to see it in print, to see it announced just makes it all real,” said Branson Airport Executive Director Jeff Bourk.

Southwest also announced it would cease AirTran operations at Allentown, Pa., Harrisburg, Pa., Sarasota, Fla., Lexington, Ky., Huntsville, Ala., and White Plains, N.Y.

“Those are major Southwest cities with connectivity to every major city in the country,” Bourk said.

Bourk expects that at least some AirTran flights to and from Branson will be under the Southwest banner by August. Until the conversion in Branson is complete, flights at Branson Airport continue to be available under the AirTran flag and through Frontier Airlines. Between the two carriers, Branson passengers can access flights to more than 50 destinations, and with the eventual conversion of networks between AirTran and Southwest, that number should increase significantly, Bourk said.

Southwest services 72 U.S. cities, according to its Web site.

“All the planes aren’t going to instantly get painted, so the big transition we’re all looking for is when the networks become converged,” Bourk said.

On Jan. 22, Southwest – the nation’s No. 1 airline in terms of total passengers – announced its plans to increase its schedule of flights to Houston Hobby Airport and Chicago Midway from Branson.

Last year AirTran flew to Houston four times a week and to Chicago three times a week from Branson Airport. Southwest suspended winter flights to Chicago, Houston and Baltimore from the airport, but beginning in the spring, flights to Chicago and Houston will be available daily, at least through the tourist season, and Bourk said a weekly flight to Baltimore would resume April 8.

Ashley Dillon, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said Branson was selected to become a host city for the airline because the company believes it makes sense for the bottom line.

“Ultimately, we feel we can build a service plan for each of the cities we kept to make them profitable in the Southwest route network,” Dillon said via e-mail. “For some cities, this means growing the current level of service, and for others, it means adjusting the destinations and number of flights, or both.”

She said Southwest, which currently operates more than 3,300 flights a day coast to coast, added flights in Branson because of its recent performance.

“We saw an opportunity in Branson to increase flying between two routes to daily service. We have been pleased with performance and feel these routes and frequencies can be successful for AirTran,” Dillon said.

Enplanements, or the number of boarding passengers, for Branson Airport increased by roughly 20 percent in 2011 to 110,000, from 92,000 in 2010.

In April 2011, Branson Airport entered into a funding and forbearance agreement with UMB Bank, the trustee overseeing $114 million in revenue bonds issued to fund the construction of the private airport. Under the agreement, Branson Airport has to meet enplanement and revenue projections to avoid foreclosure.

“Our enplanements have gone up steadily, and we’re really excited about these Southwest announcements because that’s going to ensure that that will continue to happen,” Bourk said, though he declined to project enplanement totals for 2012.

Dillon said she expects the company will receive a Single Operating Certificate, which will allow AirTran and Southwest to function as a single airline by the end of March, but the combination of the networks would take a while longer. She said Southwest officials are working to combine the networks now, and expects those flying in and out of Branson to be able to book flights at Southwest.com by the end of the year.[[In-content Ad]]