TUPELO — The final pieces are coming together for commercial air service to start again in Tupelo, five months after the last carrier left.
Corporate Flight Management, based in Smyrna, Tennessee, is set to begin its Tupelo-Nashville connection late next month.
CEO Matt Chaifetz tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal ticket sales will begin in late February.
“We are on track for a start in late March, we’re on track to begin ticket sales in late February,” said Matt Chaifetz. “We want to give ourselves a 30-day head-start of lead-time on ticket sales.”
Chaifetz said a name has been selected for the airline — it won’t be Corporate Flight Management — but said it will be revealed when the company officially rolls out its new website.
A schedule also is being finalized, with five flights daily on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; four flights on Tuesday; three flights on Saturday and four flights on Sunday.
There had been discussion of the Tupelo Regional Airport handling maintenance for the airline, but Chaifetz said the company would have its own staff handle it. CFM also will provide its own people to manage the ticket counter at the terminal.
“We will have a spare airplane parked in Tupelo as well,” he said.
CFM will be flying a twin-engine Jetstream 31/32 reconfigured to seat nine passengers.
Both planes are in the process of being renovated.
CFM will have its gate in Nashville in Concourse B near Delta Air Lines.
The last airline, SeaPort, left in October after a year of service plagued by late flights and cancellations. The airline had replaced Silver Airlines, which struggled with similar issues for two years before giving way to SeaPort.
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