Tunica Getting Airline Service From Atlanta Starting May 2

[bonuspokergod]

New scheduled air service not a flash in the pan provider
Meg Coker 16.MAR.06

Airport officials are remaining mum on the name of the scheduled air service coming to Tunica, pending a formal announcement on March 21, but say the East coast carrier will be bringing in three flights a week starting in early May.

The provider, recently immortalized in a feature film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will transport passengers to and from Atlanta on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, according to Airport Director Cliff Nash. The planes can hold a maximum of 141 passengers.

Nash said the service was selected from a group of services that initially submitted proposals.

“They came to us,” Nash said. “They made a proposal and from an airport perspective, it was a very strong proposal. We thought the casinos would jump on it. A proposal was made and from that proposal there was enough interest made from within the casinos. They negotiated with the airline, but for a different market. The airline was prepared to do a certain market, but (the casinos) said, ‘We’re interested, but we’d rather go here.’ Then it took a while for the airline to work out the logistics to support that kind of service.”

The logistics included securing gates at other airports, determining what cities the planes would come from, and finalizing what planes the service would use. Once those details were worked out, Nash said contracts were signed and Tunica was on its way toward scheduled air service.

The scheduled air service provider will join an already thriving public charter service, Gold Transport, which has been utilizing the Tunica Airport since 2005. Nash said Gold Transport has “elected not to open its flights” to the public, but has been “maxed out on passengers anyway.” The charter service flies to and from Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington.

Nash does not anticipate that these two services will interfere with each other, due to a plan to utilize modular units for security screening. Tunica County has recently agreed to purchase two trailers and the town of Tunica will purchase one trailer. The units, which will house officials with the Transportation Security Administration, should be in place by April. The trailers will be located north of the Tunica Air Center.

“What that’s going to do, it’s going to help us support operations for scheduled air service and the public charters,” Nash said. “It’s going to give us the room if we had two simultaneous operations, we could handle those with the facilities. Right now, if we were to have two airplanes trying to go out, we would be hard pressed. With charters, people kind of arrive in mass and depart in mass. They go through screening. They get on buses and then they go. With scheduled service, it’s just like going to Memphis. You go through screening. You sit at the gate. Other flights come in. People make connections. It’s a longer drawn out period when people start showing up to the flight. You have to have a gated area to hold those people. It’s different how we handle it.”

The trailers will be used for security screenings until a more permanent facility can be constructed. Nash said the units could be in place until 2008 due to a number of variables.

“It will take between a year and a half to two years to build a terminal once we’ve got the money, all the design work, it’s gone out for bids and the construction..It just really depends on when we start. If we start in the fall, then we’ll lose more time because when winter sets in, you can’t do construction,” Nash said.

Of course, Nash said he hopes as the facilities grow so will the business.

“We hope with May 2, the start of scheduled air service, that it will continue grow. Instead of three flights to one city, there will be more frequency to those cities. More cities will be added and more flights coming in. The charters, we understand will continue to grow during the summer months. We hope to get busier,” Nash said.

The airport will be buzzing with activity on Tuesday, March 21 as a plane arrives carrying passengers from Atlanta. Nash said those on board will be part of a familiarization trip.

“They will fly over here, tour Tunica, tour the casinos and help market the new service that will be provided,” Nash said.

The plane will arrive at approximately 10:15 a.m. and the community is asked to come out and welcome its passengers to Tunica.

“It’s not the inaugural flight, but it’s the announcement of scheduled air service,” Nash said. “(The service) is going to have a lot of media, tour junket people and travel agents from the Atlanta metropolitan coming over to see what Tunica has to offer. It would be nice to have a big crowd cheering them on.”

[magoo]

That's great. And they can book themselves into a room at the Grand, where Harrah's has jacked the room prices by about 300%. Tunica ain't what it was...and Harrah's is making sure you know it.

[Chipr777]

[ QUOTE ]
Harrah's has jacked the room prices by about 300%.

[/ QUOTE ] Rack rate a couple weekends ago for a deluxe was in the $1000 neighborhood. Ouch.

[MCS]

Holy crap this would be amazing.

Are there no non-Harrahs hotels there?

[SirPsycho]

Be ready for one hell of a ride into Tunica.

I guess we were on one of the first flights into Tunica about a month ago. It was a 150 person jet out of Greenville, SC. Tunica just started accepting larger jets.

As we were landing, a cold front was moving in so there were storms rolling in. The plane was going through a fair amount of turbulence and was swaying back and forth. No big deal, I've been through turbulence before (it was pretty rough, though). During the landing, we finally broke through the clouds and could see the ground. Right when we were about 50-100 feet from the ground, the pilot revs the engines and we go straight up again. ** I have to take about 10 people's claims on the distance from the ground since I was in an aisle seat and just listening to music.

Apparently, the pilot made a last-second decision that landing at the airport would not be a good idea. After a rough ride straight up - everyone holding hands and holding their breath ;-) - it was announced that we would land in Memphis instead.

From what one of the stewards said, the Tunica airport has an extremely short runway. On a good day, sunny and no wind, they have stopped within 100 yards of the end of the runway.

There is still a fairly decent ride from the airport to the casinos, so I don't see that much of a reason to land in Tunica instead of Memphis.

[bonuspokergod]

That's some poor flight planning right there. Their flight books & computers tell them to the foot exactly how long the runways are. He should have at least gone around for a second try before inconveniencing everyone by going to memphis. Besides 100yards is **plenty** of room.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
Holy crap this would be amazing.

[/ QUOTE ]Agreed.

Right now, the casinos will pick you up from Memphis for free. If you fly into Tunica, I'm sure they'll give you a lift.
-Sam

[napawino]

I'm not sure why they landed in weather so bad that it caused a problem, but somebody was terribly misinformed about the "short runways". Tunica has been landing 737's since their runway was expanded last year. PanAm just announced today that they are the airline planning the Atlanta to Tunica routes: http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=4663392

[SirPsycho]

[ QUOTE ]
but somebody was terribly misinformed about the "short runways

[/ QUOTE ]

This is just what was told to me by the steward. Maybe he was having a little fun freaking out the passengers [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]