Grand Casino wants to pull out of AirTran pact

Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000 | 8:56 a.m.

Grand Casino said Tuesday it wants out of the deal with Beau Rivage. The rival casinos had announced their joint marketing agreement with AirTran in June.

AirTran flies into Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.

Tom Brosig, regional president of Park Place Entertainment, Grand Casino's parent company, said the agreement wasn't working out as expected. He said his company notified Beau Rivage of its intention to withdraw from the partnership.

Brosig said Grand Casino wasn't satisfied with "some of the mechanics of how this would work." He would not elaborate.

He said the deal had a 120-day "get-out clause" and that's what Grand Casino was exercising.

"If Beau Rivage or AirTran is willing to come back to us and make this right or discuss other options relative to keeping the agreement in place, we're amenable to that. As it stands right now, it's not the deal we want to move forward with," Brosig said.

Bruce Nourse, a spokesman for Beau Rivage, said he didn't know how Grand Casino's decision would affect AirTran service, which Beau Rivage has subsidized since the airline started jet service to the coast in March 1999.

"There are options available to us that could continue AirTran service," Nourse said. "But at this point we are still evaluating those options, and our decision has yet to be made."

"We believe the AirTran service is very important to the continued growth of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We will take the next four months to seriously evaluate our options in hopes of maintaining that relationship," he said.

Airport Executive Director Bruce Frallic said keeping AirTran service is critical.

He credits the airline with the airport's major increase in passengers and for reducing fares charged by competing airlines. Last month AirTran boarded almost 16,000 passengers in Gulfport, nearly half of the airport's 36,297 departing passengers for the month.

"We stand ready to assist any way we can to work with Beau Rivage and the business community to make the commitment necessary to keep this thing going after January," Frallic said. "I can't say it any clearer. We don't want to lose the carrier that brought low fares to the market. It's critical to keep them and to find commitments necessary to do that."

AirTran spokesman Jim Brown said expanding service in Gulfport is a possibility.

"We believed from the very beginning that our relationship with Beau Rivage has been extremely beneficial for both parties," Brown said. "We're doing very well."