Golden Triangle Regional Airport is still scheduled to operate westbound flights, but work is underway to establish a new route to Dallas.

Tupelo Regional Airport announced this week that it will begin offering a new daily round-trip service to Dallas with Contour Airlines to provide its business travelers with a connection to a central western airport, beginning in October.

Matt Dowell, GTRA’s executive director, said he does not expect the new route from Tupelo to affect the Golden Triangle’s efforts to get a flight to the west.

“We don’t see this really impacting our ability to continue to work with (American Airlines) to provide that service,” Dowell told The Dispatch on Friday. “We believe there is more demand out there and so we would still be a viable option and a way to make money for American Airlines by offering that product multiple days and multiple times a day.”

Both GTRA and TRA have spent several years trying to add westbound service, although both were stalled by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry. TRA Chief Executive Joe Wheeler said he has been pushing for it since taking office in 2021.

A big reason it worked out now was good timing, Wheeler said. The airport’s contract with Contour Airlines for two daily flights to Nashville was nearly finalized, and the company knew the airport wanted to add the westbound flight. Plus, there’s a lot of demand from local businesses for a westbound option, he said. The Dallas flight replaces one of the two daily flights to Nashville.

“I talked to most of the companies in Tupelo and they were looking for a hub,” Wheeler said. “The only reason we chose Dallas is because if you want to go west, you go through Dallas. … We have a lot of companies here that want to go west and that’s the best option.”

Local demand is precisely why Dowell believes the new connection from Tupelo will not hurt GTRA’s chances of opening a new connection to Dallas. Business travelers heading west from GTRA now have to fly Delta to Atlanta, then back across Mississippi and then to Dallas. The airport wants a route that is less counterintuitive, Dowell said.

“This is being driven primarily by companies saying they want to fly in that direction,” Dowell said. “We want to have multiple options at the airport heading east and west, and we’re hearing from passengers that they’d like the option to fly there.”

Dowell said there had been intense discussions about potentially starting western service before the pandemic, but then airlines began to struggle with issues such as staff, pilot and aircraft shortages.

Even if those problems are gradually improving, Dowell said the launch of a westbound flight will still depend on whether the airline has the capacity to offer additional routes to locations it does not currently serve.

“When they get back into the growth phase and come out of the recovery phase, we think the most likely scenario is that this service will be added,” he said. “The good news is that it looks like some of those fronts are starting to ease in terms of the shortage of pilots and mechanics and things like that.”

Dowell said the airport is maintaining its relationship with American Airlines for now in hopes of eventually securing the new route. Growth in the Golden Triangle will be a big help in that, he said.

“That’s why we ultimately believe we can successfully offer additional services and expand our existing offering,” he said. “Economic development is an important reason why we continue to have good flight connections. We believe that airlines ultimately want to grow with us, and that’s why we continue to tout the growth of the industry.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.