The Springfield, MO / Branson / NW Arkansas market and the potential for Southwest to serve it has always interested me. I have always figured the market just doesn't rate size-wise to justify it financially. But then I can now think of 2 things that might change that picture. The first being the possibility of negotiating a sweetheart deal with the new Branson airport and the second is using it as a facilitator of Dallas based Wright-amendment flight hops.
After Wright-amendment restrictions were loosened Southwest naturally used St. Louis and added Birmingham to create some distribution points of DAL based flights. I wonder how far off from financial feasibility would it be for a cheap to land airport in the middle of nowhere Missouri (limited Orig/Term traffic) would work in serving Dallas based flights beyond the current unrestricted destinations. It would seem that is close to what a Branson airport would provide, but with the marketing opportunity for the city itself and the potential to stimulate Springfield based traffic and that megasized retail outfit headquartered in NW Arkansas.
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