Video: Tupelo Airport Authority Makes its Choice

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – The Tupelo Airport Authority has approved Seaport Airlines to service Tupelo Regional Airport. The approval came following a lengthy dicussion at tonight’s board meeting. The board accepted the Seaport bid over Air Choice One because it will cost about a million dollars less under the government’s Essential Air Service program. Seaport will offer service to both the Memphis and Nashville hubs.

“The airport authority tonight accepted the Seaport Airlines proposal. We believe it will be cheaper for the air traveller in northeast Mississippi to fly Tupelo Regional Airport to get on Seaport Airlines with two pilots and fly safely to Nashville Tennessee or to Memphis and actually the ticket would be as economical as driving.”
“So what we’re going to do is do this dual hub option to Memphis and Nashville to see if the Memphis traffic is still there, if people are still committed to going to Memphis even with Memphis’s reductions. But we have the option to shift one way or the other completely, we feel we have the option to shift one way or the other based on the ticket sales.”

And the ticket prices will be a whole lot cheaper than Silver Airlines has been charging, sixty-dollar one way. The airport authority believes the service on Seaport will also be more reliable. Once approved by the Department of Transportation, Abramson hopes Seaport can begin operations no later than November.