Missoula airport woos American Airlines to launch Dallas flights

There’s a growing possibility that Missoula International Airport may succeed in wooing American Airlines to launch nonstop flights to Dallas/Fort Worth. Business leaders recently met and deliberated on the state of air travel in Missoula.

Media reports quoted Chris Jensen, Director of Missoula International Airport, as saying that the city authorities have already applied with the U.S. Department of Transportation seeking a grant. Business leaders are also seeking to raise nearly $100,000 from community donors as part of a larger revenue guarantee to the airline.

Jensen said that there are talks about the federal grant and subsequent opportunity to make use of the federal money for bolstering Missoula’s position to attract additional air travel service in the market. He also cited the example of Bozeman and said that the city competed and succeeded in winning a similar federal grant last year.

According to Jensen, the only reason behind American Airlines launching its service to Bozeman is that the airline presently maintains a hub at Dallas/Fort Worth, and therefore it became easier to begin flights to Bozeman from Dallas. He said that it the Missoula package is combined with Bozeman’s package, then the two will be enough to prompt American Airlines enter Montana market.

The reports said that if the efforts of Missoula city authorities and business leaders finally succeed, then it is highly likely that American Airlines will launch its nonstop flights to Dallas/Fort Worth from Missoula as early as next spring. This would also result in further lowering the airfares, a trend which was started by Frontier Airlines after it launched its flights services from Missoula in 2014.