As coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continue to drop and pandemic restrictions are eased, Southern Airways Express is encouraging travelers to hit the skies with its new intra-Arkansas route that connects El Dorado, Hot Springs and Harrison.
Southern, the Essential Air Service provider at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field, launched its “Connect Arkansas” intra-state flights on June 1.
The Friday-through-Sunday flights link the three EAS communities — El Dorado, Hot Springs and Harrison —, all of which are served by Southern Airways.
Connect Arkansas flights add to the existing Dallas and Memphis routes that are offered by Southern Airways.
Now, passengers can take advantage of the intra-state flights with a special, promotional offer, with fares starting at $19, for the remainder of June and in July.
“Passengers who love to travel have had a rough year,” said Stan Little, chairman and chief executive officers of Southern Airways.
“We wanted to create something new in the marketplace and give people the chance to take to the skies again, while at the same time, being sensitive to the financial hardships that some have faced during the pandemic,” Little continued.
Southern Airways offers weekly, round-trip flights to Dallas and Memphis under a government-subsidized contract with the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide EAS for El Dorado, Hot Springs and Harrison — a role the commercial airline has served since 2017.
The new weekend flights between the three cities are not a part of the government contract, which went into effect June 1 and expires in 2023.
Southern pitched the new routes last September in a bid to renew its EAS contracts in Arkansas.
Flights to Dallas and Memphis are not included in the special, $19 promotion for Connect Arkansas.
Johnathan Estes, manager of South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field, said Southern Airways responded to requests from area air travelers for the Arkansas connection.
“Southern Airways is always looking to add new routes that are in demand by the local communities,” Estes said.
Due to COVID-19, Southern’s enplanements and deplanements at SARA dropped for much of 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021.
However, during an El Dorado Airport Commission meeting June 14, Estes reported that boardings climbed back up to pre-COVID numbers in May, with 244 enplanements and 218 deplanements for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport flights and 58 enplanements and 49 deplanements for Memphis International Airport.
In comparison, 92 passengers flew to and 85 flew in from Dallas during the same month last year. For the Memphis route, 41 passengers boarded flights and 18 passengers deplaned in May of 2020.
With travel season in full swing, Estes said he hopes the new intra-state flights and special introductory rates help to boost air travelers’ confidence and maintain the numbers that trended in May.
“It is my hope that the citizens of south Arkansas and north Louisiana take advantage of the first intra-state flights, along with the flights to Dallas and Memphis this summer,” he said.
“People from here want to go to events in Hot Springs and Branson and people in Hot Springs and Harrison want to come to El Dorado to go to (Murphy Arts District) events,” he said previously, adding, “This allows you to fly up there Friday at 11:30 (a.m.), you can be in Hot Springs by 12:15 p.m. and you can fly back Sunday afternoon and be back in El Dorado by 4 (p.m.) and be ready for work on Monday.”
Little said the new flight pattern also adds a Memphis connection to Hot Springs, the route he took June 1 to meet Estes, Glen Barentine, manager of Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport, and Judy McCutcheon, manager of Boone County Regional Airport in Harrison, in Hot Springs for the inaugural intra-state flight.
For more information or to book a flight, visit iFlySouthern.com or call 1-800-329-0485.