Springfield–Branson National Airport is a public airport located about five miles northwest of Springfield, Missouri, in Greene County. The airport has non-stop service to thirteen U.S. cities.
History
The airport opened as the Springfield–Greene County Airport on July 2, 1945, following bond issues of $350,000 in 1942 and $150,000 in 1945 to build the airport. It replaced the Springfield Park and Airport on East Division Street. Springfield Park was the former McCluer Flying Field, which opened in 1925 and was purchased by the city in 1928 and which had commercial service by American Airlines and Transcontinental and Western. The airlines discontinued service during the Great Depression. The airport was shortly renamed the Springfield Municipal Airport after the city and the county disagreed on funding. In 1946, American Airlines began first commercial service to the new airport. In October 1964, a new terminal opened and was paid for by a 1960 $600,000 bond issue. In 1992, the airport was renamed the Springfield–Branson Regional Airport, capitalizing on the sudden rise of the Branson, tourist industry; the airport is northwest of Springfield, and Branson is more than southeast of the airport. In that same year, the community of Lakeview, renamed itself Branson West. " Branson has not said anything formal about the airport's running. In May 2006, ground was broken for a brand new terminal and it was announced the airport would be renamed the Springfield–Branson National Airport. The new Midfield Terminal opened on May 6, 2009, and was designed by Reynolds, Smith & Hills.
Competing Branson Airports
The Branson Airport, which is located in Branson, opened in the spring of 2009 to compete with the municipally owned Springfield airport. Branson Airport, LLC, is reportedly the first privately owned airport in the US having regularly scheduled commercial airline service. The $155 million project was funded by $117 million of municipal bonds and private investors. It is a few miles southeast of Hollister. Meanwhile, Branson West hopes to open a $15 million airport with a runway on the west side of the community to open in the fall of 2008 on donated by Conco Companies of Springfield, Kay Renfro and Martin Eastwood. The City had initially proposed building the airport on the east side near Silver Dollar City, but the plan was dropped due to protests. The new airport currently has no plans for commercial traffic.
Accidents and incidents
At 10:36pm March 20, 1955, American Airlines Flight 711 crashed more than a mile north of the airport. Eleven of 32 passengers died, along with the stewardess and copilot. The federal investigation blamed pilot error misjudging the altitude. It is the only commercial crash at the airport.
Facilities and aircraft
Springfield–Branson National Airport covers and has two runways: 14/32, asphalt/concrete, 8,000 x 150 ft ; and 2/20, concrete, 7,003 x 150 ft . In 2017 the airport had 56,585 aircraft operations, average 155 per day: 52% general aviation, 24% air taxi, 7% military and 17% scheduled commercial. 127 aircraft were based at this airport: 64% single-engine, 14% multi-engine, 19% jet, and 3% military. There is an Army National Guard unit based at Springfield–Branson, the 35th combat aviation brigade, detachment 3 company 1 of the 185th aviation regiment. "The 35th Combat Aviation Brigade deploys to an area of responsibility to provide command, control, staff planning and supervision of combat aviation brigade operations. The brigade's units fly a combination of AH-64A Apache attack helicopters, OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopters and UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters. It also has a detachment of two C-23 Sherpa cargo airplanes and a C-12 transport airplane."
Financial Data
The strongest area of income for SGF is from non-aeronautical revenue activities including parking and rental cars. This is followed by fuel sales, terminal fees and landing fees. Parking income has been the strongest for the past year and has followed enplanement trends with a drop in revenues in FY 2008, and increasing again in FY 2010, with the highest level to date at more than $2.5 million. Personnel is the largest expenditure for the airport: this major operating expense is increasing per year and remains the highest by a very large margin. Additionally, an expense that sticks out is a sharp increase in contractual series between FY 2011 and FY 2012. An assumption can be made that the Airport is beginning preparations regarding the airport issue and alternative discussed in this paper.
