The Branson Board of Aldermen will consider Tuesday whether to make the city’s next payment to the Branson Airport from Branson’s tourism marketing fund.
The city agreed in a 2006 contract to pay the airport $8.24 for each passenger brought to Branson. The payment does not include passengers on round-trip flights originating in Branson. The contract was updated in 2010 to make it easier for the city to audit the airport’s traffic numbers. It also required the city to make payments to the Branson Regional Airport Transportation Development District rather than directly to the airport.
According to city spokesman Jerry Adams, the board will consider making the $195,000 payment from the city’s tourism tax reserve fund. He said the city can use tourism tax funds because they will partially reimburse the airport for a $500,000 television marketing campaign in Chicago with the airport began regular flights to the city.
The payment would actually go to the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, which also committed money to the marketing campaign. The chamber would then pay the money to the transportation development district, which would make it available for the airport to pay its bond debts.
Adams said representatives from the airport and chamber have approved the idea.
The city makes payments to the airport every six months. The current payment represents passengers who flew from Jan. 1 to June 30 this year. If approved, the city will have paid the airport a total of $933,442
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