Tupelo Regional Looks to Renew Contract with Contour
Jan. 11—TUPELO — Expressing satisfaction with Contour Airlines' air service, the Tupelo Regional Airport looks to renew its contract with the airline for another two years.
The current contract expires Sept. 30. On Tuesday, airport executive director Joe Wheeler recommended to the board that they extend it another two years.
Contour, based in the Nashville suburb of Smyrna, flies 14 roundtrip flights between Tupelo and Nashville weekly on 30-passenger, twin-engine jets. The service is subsidized through the federal Essential Air Service, which pays Contour $3.8 million.
"This will be an extension of the current contract with no changes," Wheeler said.
Wheeler told the board that it could ask to entertain other bids, but warned that with the airline industry in its current flux with finding and keeping enough pilots, staying with Contour was the smartest choice.
"If you're looking at the EAS market and who's bidding on those routes, Contour is the only one with a jet," he said. "Let's say if we bid it back out and the federal government forces us to go back to a single-engine carrier, it'll be highly unlikely we can meet that 10,000-passenger minimum to get the additional entitlement funds."
With 10,000 boardings, the airport receives $1 million in federal money, which can be used for airport improvements. Below 10,000, the airport receives only $150,000.
Use of the AIP (Airport Improvement Program) money provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration is restricted to capital improvements, such as pavement repairs or reconstruction, vehicles and other equipment. It cannot be used for administrative or any other costs.
Contour has proved popular with leisure travelers, and while the airport would like to see more business travelers using the airline, sticking with what works is the safe bet.
"Our numbers are good, and I don't see any reason to change," Wheeler said.
Contour has been the carrier for Tupelo since April 2016 when it took over following a five-month lull in service following SeaPort's early departure in October of the previous year.
SeaPort followed Silver Airlines in 2014, after that airline had won the EAS bid to offer service after Delta Air Lines abandoned Tupelo and dozens of other smaller markets in 2012.
That nearly proved fatal for Tupelo, which saw boardings plummet in the wake of unreliable service from Silver and Airport.
But Contour, initiating its commercial air service in Tupelo six years and now replicated in several cities across the country, has been able to boost confidence in air service in the All-America City.
Until 2020, as the pandemic settled in, passenger boardings had grown every year with Contour's service between Tupelo and Nashville. Boardings during four of the last five years have reached at least 10,000 — the first time that's happened since the early 2000s when the airport was served by two airlines.
For 2021, boardings totaled 12,445, a 43% increased from the previous year's figures that were impacted by the pandemic.
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