Boston-Maine Airways, flying as Pan Am Clipper Connection, stopped its thrice-weekly service this month after losing key routes out of Atlanta. Since May, Boston-Maine had been using Boeing 727s to fly 70 to 80 passengers per flight from Atlanta to Tunica in partnership with several casinos, which guaranteed a set number of seats.
Traffic was starting to pick up, including passengers driving from Memphis for the Atlanta flight, said Clifton Johnson, Tunica County administrator. "We are out there soliciting for other carriers," he said, "and not just to replace the Atlanta flight but to get scheduled service from a number of cities."
A consortium made up of casino representatives and county leaders hopes to have a replacement sometime in 2007. "We've landed 16,000 passengers in the first 10 months of this year," said Webster Franklin, president and chief executive of the Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Most of the business flew in on the 131-seat charter Harrah's Entertainment sponsors, now averaging 1.3 flights a day. It began the service last November. Until then, the Tunica airport, which opened in 2003, had never served a plane with more than 30 passengers.
While the Pan Am decision comes as a blow, the consortium recently asked the state's congressional delegation for enough money to extend the runway from 7,000 feet to 8,500. "We're also planning a terminal building, but we would like to build a terminal around an airline's needs," Franklin said.