New air service coming to Tunica

A charter airline with a membershipbased service model will connect Tunica Municipal Airport to Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and St. Pete/Tampa starting July 1.

Pompano Beach, Florida-based Ashley Air and Travel announced it is bringing regular scheduled air service back to the Tunica airport.

It will be the only regular service at Tunica, which previously had service aimed at the casino market, including Vision Airlines and AirTran. It’s been more than six years since the market had regular service and about two years since the last casino charters.

Ashley is touting an introductory $599 annual travel membership that includes unlimited travel on all routes served by Ashley Air for $39 each way, plus taxes and fees.

Ashley said it will fly one nonstop daily from Tunica with a 50-passenger ERJ145 jet.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, it will fly from Tunica to Atlanta to the Tampa area (St. Pete-Clearwater International), then reverse the route. On Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, it will fly from Tunica to Charlotte to Orlando, then back.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Eric Konupka, Tunica airport executive director. “We are starting service with that limited schedule with the idea of building back up.”

The airport sees it as opening the Tunica gaming and entertainment market to potentially millions of people in the target cities, although the niche service may fit the needs of some Mid-South residents. Tunica is 30 miles south of Memphis.

Tunica bills itself as The South’s Casino Capital, with eight casinos, 5,000 hotel rooms and a full range of leisure amenities.

John Ashley, chief executive officer of Ashley Air and Travel, said in a statement, “We are thrilled about the new routes to and from Destination Tunica. The demand to visit Tunica is high and we are excited to provide this new and affordable service connecting the traveling public in Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, and Tampa/St. Pete to all the Tunica destination has to offer.”

Konupka said the initial flights will operate out of Tunica Air Center, a fixedbase operator, while the airport works with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to get screening set back up in the main terminal.

TSA pulled the screening equipment and stopped staffing the airport after casino charters quit running a couple years ago, Konupka said.