Visitors this year are utilizing the nearby runway. It's a win win situation this holiday season. Folks flying in are happy for the shorter drive from the airport, and Branson Airport is pleased with the business.

The sights and sounds of Christmas are all over Branson, and folks are coming from all over to feel the holiday spirit. "Oh, the lights everywhere! It's just gorgeous. It puts you really in the mood for Christmas," says Betty Brown. Many holiday tourists, like the Browns from Virginia, are flying in by way of the Branson Airport.

"I went online and discovered we could come here to the Branson Airport, which was much closer than Springfield," says Brown. The six month-old airport is happy to welcome the Christmas rush. "Christmas, obviously, in Branson, starts November 1st, so we had all our Christmas decorations up in the terminal and ready to go on November 1st," says Gene Conrad, Deputy Director of Marketing for the Branson Airport.

Conrad says the regular flights through AirTran and Sun Country Airlines are doing well. "We feel pretty good about where we are," Conrad says. The airport says most of their flights are pretty full, at 75 to 80 percent capacity. "It's been very popular in both Rockford and Shreeveport. We're bringing in a lot of folks," Conrad says. Whether first time visitors, or not, they're happy to welcome the whole holiday crowd.

Brown says, "We do plan, in another year or two, to come back."

The Branson Convention and Visitors Bureau is also spending money in the cities where those charter flights land to market Branson. The airport hopes to add three or four more charter flight destinations from Spring through next December.

This weekend, the fifty passenger charter plane from Shreevport was full, and about 40 flew in from Rockford.