The US Has a New Least Used Airport - And It's Served by 737s

Real World Aviation
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The US Has a New Least Used Airport - And It’s Served by 737s

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Welcome to Branson!
Branson is a city just north of the Arkansas border, in the State of Missouri. Branson is no small town - it has a metro area population of around 30,000. It is a popular gateway to the stunning Ozark mountain range, which covered much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Its neighboring city, Springfield, boasts around 200,000 people, with nearly double that including the suburbs. Springfield has a rather large regional airport, with service across the US on Delta, United, American, and Allegiant. But Southern Missouri has another commercial airport with a rather... interesting service.
Branson Airport

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Just 6 miles southeast of Branson’s downtown area lies Branson National Airport. The facility has had a rather tumultuous commercial history, which I’ll lay out in more detail below.

  • Frontier: 1x daily to Denver, 3x weekly to Milwaukee (discontinued)
  • ExpressJet: Unknown frequency, Dallas/Fort Worth (discontinued)
  • AirTran: Unknown frequency, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston (discontinued)
  • Southwest: Unknown frequency, Dallas, Chicago, Houston, and Orlando (discontinued)
  • Buzz Airways: 1x daily, Houston-Hobby (discontinued)
  • Sun Country Airlines: 3x weekly (summertime only), Minneapolis - Saint Paul (current)

Branson was also involved in the imfamous Southwest 4013 incident. The 737-700 was flying a late night service from Chicago - Midway down to Branson. Rather than landing at Branson’s airport, it landed at M. Graham Clark Airport, 7 miles to the north. It stopped just feet from the end of the airport’s 4,000 foot airstrip. Nobody was harmed.

So... Why Sun Country?

As I mentioned earlier, Branson is a gateway to the Ozark mountains and it’s natural beauty, as well as the “mini Vegas” that is the town of Branson (which is known for gambling). Most airlines fly into Springfield, just a 45 minute drive to the north. But, when Sun Country began drafting a plane to start serving their second Missouri destination, they realized that Branson was much cheaper than Springfield and they were practically begging for the restarting of airline service, ever since Frontier abandoned them in 2022. So, Sun Country began serving Branson on a 3x weekly basis from their Minneapolis/Saint Paul hub.

A Great Explainer
In a video posted today, Noel Phillips does a great job of explaining the route, the airport, and why Sun Country serves it.
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Cool I used to live in Springfield mo

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Cool! Of course it is sun country 😜

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Wait till Noel goes to Colombia more specifically Cali and Medellín the airports are all half an hour from the city centers

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Such a fun route to fly in IF, would love to do it real life actually!

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Imagine the Air Traffic Controllers there. They must be so happy when a plane arrived into their airspace.

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