Originally Posted by SherpaLifter

Branson was an interesting city for SWA to keep from the AirTran network. It is a great family destination and the number one tour bus destination in the country. The city did not pull its subsidy ( I think they pay about $8 to SWA for every passenger), SWA just decided to reallocate their capital (aircraft) to other markets. With a flat fleet, if you take on other routes (LGA and hopefully DCA), you have to cut somewhere. Load factors were at or above the SWA system-wide average, but perhaps the yields were not there. SWA only served Branson from DAL, MDW and MCO (on weekends), so that isn't much of a feed. AirTran served Branson from ATL, which gave connecting opportunities to anywhere on the east coast. But SWA continues to downsize ATL and hand it to DAL on a silver platter. Now Branson is left with just Frontier service to Denver. The airport is privately funded and has missed 2 bond payments already. I suspect, absent another big carrier coming in, the airport will be in bankruptcy within a year. Anyone want to buy an airport, cheap?