Gaming flights considered from Albany to Gulf
Mississippi resort and casino seeks visitors to help rebound from Katrina
COLONIE — A Mississippi resort and casino operator has met with Albany International Airport officials on plans to offer nonstop charter flights to the Gulf Coast as early as this winter.
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino already offers packages from southern cities to the Gulfport/Biloxi Regional Airport on AirTran Airways. Beau Rivage reopened Aug. 29 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the area just a year earlier.
Owner MGM Mirage spent $500 million on repairs to the hotel and casino complex, which employs 3,800 people.
Now, with high-rise condominiums replacing wrecked homes along the beachfront, the resort’s management is pitching the idea of charter flights from Albany and other Northeast cities as it attempts to rebuild business.
“They feel they have a resort area that offers not only gaming but a beautiful beach and golf,” airport spokesman Doug Myers said Friday.
Las Vegas, he said, doesn’t offer the beach, while Florida doesn’t offer the gaming, so resort officials think they’ll have an edge on marketing the region.
Longtime Capital Region travel agent Carl Mitchell, of Currier Travel in Colonie, thinks the flights could succeed.
“Southwest (Airlines) set the precedent when they started the nonstop service to Las Vegas,” Mitchell said. “The potential exists. It all depends on the pricing and the accommodations.”
Myers said the charter flights likely would be aboard 737s or similar full-size jets. Smaller regional jets, he said, might not have the necessary space if they have to carry dozens of sets of golf clubs.
It’s not clear whether AirTran or another carrier would provide the charter service. Albany is among about four dozen cities AirTran is considering expanding into, according to an online poll it is conducting. The airline plans to start service from Stewart International Airport on Jan. 11.
Beau Rivage also draws such entertainers as Wayne Newton, The Four Tops, Olivia Newton John and Boyz II Men, and touts its four-diamond award from the AAA.
Myers said the charter plans are still preliminary, and that no decisions to start service have been made. Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.
Source: Times Union