Tunica, MS—
FAST FACTS
- Airtran partnering with Harrah's
- Flights to operate 4 days a week
- Aimed at leisure travellers
(Tunica, MS 2/10/10) Tunica has landed it's first major airline. Airtran announced Wednesday, it will start regular service to the casino destination in May.
Tunica has charter flights all the time, it has even had regularly scheduled airline service before.
But now, for the first time, it's landed a major airline with connections around the country and beyond.
Within minutes of Airtran's announcement it would add Tunica to It's stable of 47 destinations around the country, folks lined up to buy the first tickets for the flights to start in May. "I think it's great! I can go see my grandkids now. They live in Atlanta. I got three there." said Bobby Williams of Tunica County.
What brought Airtran to Tunica, when it already flies to Memphis just up the road? A close relationship with Harrah's casinos which will heavily market the flights to a distinctly different traveler than what Memphis attracts.
"We found that about ninety percent of those customers were actually business travelers and only ten percent leisure. So we're gonna be just about the opposite. We're gonna be about ninety percent leisure customers and about ten percent business." said R. Scott Barber, Regional President of Harrah's Mid-South.
Folks in Tunica hope Airtran will have the kind of staying power they might build on to attract other airlines.
Tunica had scheduled airline service one time before back in 2006. It was with PanAm and the service only lasted 6 months.
Airtran flights back and forth to Atlanta begin May 6th. They'll run Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sundays at 10:15 and 11:28am. Flights will arrive in Tunica at 10:53am and 1:45pm.
"Gonna have the whole delta coming here now to fly out instead of goin' to Memphis. It'll be a lot easier, so fast, it's gonna be good." said Williams.
And here's the best part, introductory flights from back and forth to Atlanta will start at just forty-nine bucks.
