Branson Airport is a public use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located eight nautical miles (15 km) south-southeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Branson Branson may refer to: Places ;Canada * Branson, Toronto ;United States * Branson, Missouri, a popular tourist destination in the Ozark Mountains * Branson, Colorado * Branson City, California * The Branson School, in Ross, California * Warrenpoi ...

, a city in Taney County,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Branson Airport, LLC is a private company operating the airport through an operating agreement with The Branson Regional Airport Transportation District. The airport is owned by Taney County, MO. Branson Airport’s three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, is BKG This code should be used when looking up airline flights to/from Branson Airport. The three-letter location identifier from the FAA is BBG. This should be used by pilots when locating the airport. The airport opened on May 11, 2009. As of 2023, only private airlines service the airfield. There is one FBO on the field, named the Branson Jet Center. Two restaurants are located at the airport, one in the main terminal building with access to passengers flying in and out on commercial flights. The other restaurant is open to the public and is located at the Branson Jet Center.

Opening

Prior to construction of Branson Airport, the closest commercial service airport was Springfield-Branson National Airport northwest of Branson. The formal grand opening was May 8–10, 2009, during which the

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron ("Thunderbirds") is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF Th ...

performed during an air show. The first scheduled passenger flight arrived the following day, on May 11, 2009 from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport operated by

Sun Country Airlines Sun Country Airlines is an American ultra-low-cost passenger and cargo airline, and the eleventh largest in the US by passengers carried. Based at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport with headquarters on airport property, Sun Coun ...

with a

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

jetliner. There were two airlines operating at the time of Branson's opening,

AirTran Airways AirTran Airways was a low-cost U.S. airline that was originally headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and ceased operation following its acquisition by Southwest Airlines. AirTran Airways was established in 1993 as Conquest Sun Airlines by the ...

and

. Besides AirTran and Sun Country, the airport has been served by

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

and

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

as well as several regional air carriers.

Flight history

launched flights to Branson Airport with daily service to Denver as well as less than daily service to Milwaukee, which was formerly served from Branson through AirTran.

ExpressJet ExpressJet Airlines was a Regional airline, regional List of defunct airlines of the United States (D–I), U.S. airline headquartered in College Park, Georgia. The company originally operated as a contracted Codeshare agreement, codeshare part ...

also operated flights under an independent brand known as Branson Air Express to several markets utilizing

Embraer ERJ-145 The Embraer ERJ family (for Embraer Regional Jet, model names EMB-135, EMB-140 and EMB-145) are regional jets designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. The family includes the ERJ135 (37 passengers), ERJ140 (44 passenger ...

regional jets supporting

point-to-point transit Point-to-point transit is a transportation system in which a plane, bus, or train travels directly to a destination, rather than going through a central hub. This differs from the spoke-hub distribution paradigm in which the transportation goes ...

. On February 23, 2011, Branson Airport's largest carrier at the time,

, announced additional flights from Branson to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Chicago-Midway Chicago Midway International Airport , typically referred to as Midway Airport, Chicago Midway, or simply Midway, is a major commercial airport on the Southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the Lo ...

and

Houston-Hobby William P. Hobby Airport (colloquially referred to as Hobby Airport, Houston Hobby, or simply Hobby) is an international airport in Houston, TX, Houston, Texas, located from downtown Houston. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and w ...

. All flights were announced to be year round service. As of August, 2012, Branson Airport was served with six nonstop departures a day with more than 100 possible connections. On August 27, 2012,

announced service to Branson and started service on March 9, 2013. Southwest flew

jetliners nonstop to

, Dallas-Love,

and previously flew Saturday only flights to Orlando–International. Southwest Airlines then ended all service into the airport on June 7, 2014. On February 24, 2014,

announced their expansion of Branson to Denver service on June 9, 2014. Seasonal service ended in October 2014. Frontier Airlines returned to Branson in the spring of 2018, having served the Branson market for a number of years since the airport opened in 2009. On April 3, 2014, Buzz Airways, announced new nonstop service to both Chicago-Midway and Houston-Hobby airports that began June 12, 2014, replacing the lost Southwest Airlines service. As of December 2014, this service was operated by

Elite Airways Elite Airways is an airline based in the United States operating charter and scheduled passenger flights. The airline adjusts destinations as demand increases or decreases. The airline is headquartered in Portland, Maine. History Elite Airways ...

with

Canadair CRJ The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

regional jet aircraft. Service to Chicago-Midway has since terminated. On December 23, 2014, Branson AirExpress announced flights operated by Elite Airways and Buzz Airways will continue in 2015 to Chicago-Midway, (MDW) Houston-Hobby (HOU), Austin (AUS) and Denver (DEN). On January 28, 2015, Branson AirExpress announced it would add an additional operator,

Orange Air Orange Air, LLC was an American charter airline that began service in 2014. It was based at Orlando Sanford International Airport and was headquartered on the grounds of the airport. History Orange Air began operating sports charters in late 2014 ...

, flying

McDonnell Douglas MD-80 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gene ...

jetliners nonstop to Cincinnati (CVG) and New Orleans (MSY) with direct, one stop service to Cancun, Mexico (CUN) via New Orleans from the Branson Airport starting May 6, 2015. On October 5, 2015 the Cincinnati leg of the Orange Air route was terminated, and the Branson-New Orleans-Cancun portion of the route was transferred to

. Elite Airways and Buzz Airways returned as the scheduled air service providers in 2016. In 2017, the sole provider was Via Air, operating

Embraer EMB-145 The Embraer ERJ family (for Embraer Regional Jet, model names EMB-135, EMB-140 and EMB-145) are regional jets designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. The family includes the ERJ135 (37 passengers), ERJ140 (44 passenger ...

regional jets to several destinations. In October 2019, the airline declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations. In February 2018,

announced it was returning to Branson with seasonal service to Denver (DEN) beginning June 13, 2018. However in 2023, Frontier announced they would not serve the airport for the coming season.

Facilities and aircraft

Branson Airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 1,302 feet (397 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 14/32 with a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface measuring 7,140 by 150 feet (2,176 x 46 m).

Airline and destination

Development and construction

The construction of the airport, which involved the flattening of several

Ozark Mountains The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portio ...

, is claimed to be the largest earthmoving project in Missouri history. A press release noted that between groundbreaking in July 2007 and May 2008 11 million cubic yards of earth had been moved. The $155 million project includes a by runway, numbered 14/32, and a terminal designed to accommodate 1.4 million passengers a year. The $155 million cost of the building the terminal included $38 million in private equity and $117 million in tax free bonds underwritten by

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

. The high-risk, high-yield bonds (top rate of 6.5%) were issued by the Branson Regional Airport Transportation Development District. The City of Branson will pay a subsidy of $8.24 to Branson Airport LLC for each arriving visitor with an annual cap of $2 million. The developer was Branson Airport, LLC and AFCO. The Program Manager was Vasey Aviation Group LLC. The master designer was Burns and McDonnell Engineering. McAninch Corporation handled the earth moving operations. A local contractor Dewitt was the contractor handling the terminal construction.

References

External links

FlyBranson.com
official site * * {{US-airport-ga, BBG, - Airports in Missouri Branson, Missouri micropolitan area Buildings and structures in Taney County, Missouri 2009 establishments in Missouri