Golden Triangle air passengers traveling to the Western United States and overseas destinations received a more direct route Monday as the Golden Triangle Regional Airport expanded its service to include Memphis, Tenn.
The airport Monday afternoon celebrated its first flight from the Golden Triangle to the Memphis International Airport as about 16 passengers boarded a Delta turboprop plane to shuttle them from Lowndes County to Tennessee”s largest city.
“We had a little celebration before the first flight to Memphis left at 3:45 Monday afternoon, and everyone had a good time,” said GTRA Executive Director Mike Hainsey. “We actually had a promotion contest on the 99.9 radio station where a bunch of people submitted limericks about the airport, and the winner got to fly out of here on the first Memphis flight.
“A lady from Tupelo named Carol Cole won the contest, so she won the free trip to Memphis for her and a friend,” Hainsey added. “We paid for them to stay in the Mariott hotel on Beale Street and paid for their meals and everything.”
The addition of the Memphis hub provides travelers a more direct route to destinations east and north of Mississippi, Hainsey said.
Before Memphis service began, nearly all flights from GTRA traveled to Atlanta before reaching their destinations.
“This is especially convenient for companies like Paccar and American Eurocopter, because those companies have headquarters in places like Dallas and Seattle,” Hainsey said, noting about 80 percent of the airport”s traffic is business-related.
“Plus, Memphis has nonstop flights to places like Amsterdam, where one of Paccar”s large factories is located,” Hainsey added.
The GTRA will provide two flights per day to Memphis and also will receive two flights per day from the Tennessee city. The early flight departs GTRA at 6:30 a.m., and the afternoon flight departs the Golden Triangle at 3:45 p.m.
Flights from Memphis to GTRA depart at 2:25 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. each day. Travel time between the two airports is about an hour, according to flight information on www.delta.com.
All flights to and from Memphis will be on 32-passenger Saab turboprop airplanes.
“Things are looking pretty good right now, especially this early into the service. And we have a lot of advance bookings on many of the upcoming flights,” said Hainsey. “Delta has even told us that we are doing better than any other startup they have seen in recent history.”
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