Branson Airport

        

The Branson Airport
Branson Airport is a public use airport located eight nautical miles (15 km) south-southeast of the central business district of Branson, Missouri. It is privately owned by Branson Airport, LLC.

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned BBG by the FAA and BKG by the IATA (which assigned BBG to Butaritari Atoll Airport in Butaritari, Kiribati[3]).

The airport opened on May 11, 2009. It is the first privately owned, privately operated commercial service airport in the United States. As part of the negotiations to create the airport, as a liability shield, and obtain financing, Branson Airport, LLC had to "gift" the land they owned to Taney County, Missouri in order to lease and operate the airport privately.

Airlines Destinations
AirTran Airways Atlanta, Orlando ExpressJet Airlines Chicago/Rockford, Shreveport Frontier Airlines operated by Republic Airlines Denver Sun Country Airlines Dallas/Fort Worth, Minneapolis/St. Paul [all seasonal]

Competition
There are some unusual consequences of the airport's private ownership. One such issue is the fact that competition is neither desired nor allowed. When an airline acquires a route to and from the airport, they will generally acquire an exclusive arrangement with Branson Airport, LLC, to serve that destination city. “We don’t want suicide fares, two or three airlines bashing each other over the head until someone says ‘uncle’ and leaves,” said [CEO Steve] Peet, explaining why the airport agreed to protect the airlines from competition. “We want to build real service, sustainable service.” Opening Prior to construction of Branson Airport, the closest commercial service airport was Springfield-Branson National Airport 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Branson. That airport is totally owned by Springfield, Missouri.

The formal grand opening was May 8-10, 2009 during which the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds performed during an air show. The first flight arrived the following day, on May 11, 2009 from Minneapolis-St. Paul on a Sun Country scheduled commercial flight.

Development and construction
The developers built it as part of the Branson Creek golf/residential complex land formerly belonging to Tennessee Ernie Ford. The land was then bought by Glenn Patch, a publisher of Computer Shopper and other magazines, in 1990 when he bought 7,000 acres (28 km2) in the area to develop the Branson Creek complex.[8] Patch also owns the franchise for the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theatre in Branson. The owners have put the naming rights for the FBO, the terminal, and the entire airport up for sale. The construction of the airport which involved the flattening of several Ozark Mountains 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. Plans also call for the construction of an 8,000-seat arena and 15,000-seat amphitheater near the airport.