Posted on 10/26/2006 5:31:54 AM PDT by mcg2000
Six months after the start of scheduled air service, Pan Am made its official departure from Tunica County.
The last flight took off from the Tunica Airport on Oct. 8. Since May, Pan Am had operated three flights a week from Atlanta to Tunica.
County administrator Clifton Johnson attributes the exodus to internal problems within the Pan Am organization. According to Johnson, Pan Am recently lost a major route from Orlando to Puerto Rico.
“During the time of their contract with us, they lost both of those flights out of Orlando. That’s where they were staging their Atlanta to Tunica flights from, based on the downtime of those planes when they weren’t flying to those two destinations. When they lost both of those flights it became a critical situation on their revenue, “ Johnson said.
Pan Am officials decided not to renew their local contract and will now focus on destinations along the east coast. The airline is based out of New Hampshire.
Johnson said Tunica County is pursuing another carrier, which he declined to name. He did indicate that it is not Southwest Airlines, as rumored.
“I think Southwest has always been a point of interest for this particular area. From the information we have gotten, this is not an area where they are looking to expand,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he and county officials remain optimistic that an airline will choose Tunica after seeing the success of Pan Am.
“I think the whole program was successful. The last couple of weekends, the plane was almost at capacity....I don’t think anybody was dissatisfied with the service. Just not economical to continue,” Johnson said.
Despite the airline’s departure, Johnson stressed that the county will continue to support the airport.
“We’re committed to continuing to expand the airport. They are a viable part of the economy of Tunica County,” Johnson said.
By next fall, county officials hope to have the airport’s runway expanded to 8500 feet.
“The dirt work is already done. We are just trying to secure some federal funding,” Johnson said.
The county will hold off on plans to construct a terminal until another airline can be found to partner with.
Johnson believes that is only a matter of time, considering the growth the area is about to see.
“We’re in a good position in terms of things that are about to happen with the housing development about to start, Riverbend Crossing, things in the area, I-69 opening up. At the ribbon cutting, they talked about having I-69 finished all the way down to Highway 4 within the next five years. When you look at that, the whole area is prime for development. I really think you are going to see that in the next five years,” Johnson said.
He also predicted that the county will again partner with the casinos and tourism officials for more ventures like bringing in Pan Am.
“This is a situation where you saw a partnership between the county, the airport, the casinos, the tourism industry. It couldn’t have happened without all of the parties involved. I think we’ll continue to see that,” Johnson said.
As for the next location that Tunica may be connected to via air, Johnson said it will depend on what the casinos would like to target.
“The casinos have different markets that they like and we have to go to that,” Johnson said.
I though Pan Am was dead years ago.
Someone bought the name (presumably from Delta?), and is operating a small airline. I saw one of their aircraft at ATL about a month ago.
Interesting bit of airline history, right there.
We flew Pam Am in Asia all the time, except when my dad was on business. Then it was CAT.
Bummer...
Delta got started in the delta....dusting crops.
Yep, knew that.
They also bought the "real" Pan Am, when they went out of business.
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