Waco airport welcomes more frequent flights, reportedly fueled by 'Fixer Upper' craze
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They may be temporarily off the airwaves, but the influence of Chip and Joanna Gaines still reigns supreme in Waco, Texas, as the local airport is welcoming more frequent flights and travelers than ever before.
In April, Waco Regional Airport saw a whopping 27 percent more enplanements year-over-year with 5,873 planes, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports.
Waco Regional Airport Director Joel Martinez says the numbers – and the city’s larger tourism boom – certainly stems in part from the popularity of the former “Fixer Upper” stars and their booming business, Magnolia Market at the Silos.
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“We have a diverse group of folks in and out of here, international travelers judging by the conversations I pick up when am in the terminal,” Martinez told the outlet. “We do get a lot of Magnolia-related and Baylor University-related traffic. We do our best to inquire ‘What brings you to Waco?’”
Reps for American Airlines have been “so impressed” with the demand for their regional branch’s flights to and from Waco, that they’ve added two daily flights to the schedule, the Tribune-Herald reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As noted by KCEN-TV, 2.7 million tourists came to Waco in 2018 – with 1.6 million visiting Magnolia Market.
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Furthermore, tourism for Waco quadrupled from 2014 to 2018, as per the Waco Convention and Visitor's Bureau.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If you’re not lucky enough to hop on a plane for a quick jaunt to Texas, however, Chip and Jo will be back on television soon enough.
Last month, Discovery, Inc., and Magnolia announced that the couple's upcoming cable network will replace Discovery's DIY Network and will be unveiled in the summer of 2020.
The yet-to-be-named channel, which is currently hooked to more than 52 million homes in the U.S., will feature long-form programming centered around topics such as community, home, garden, food, wellness and design, according to the press release
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And "Fixer Upper" fans need not fret, as the channel will also feature reruns of the Gaines' hugely popular HGTV show, which premiered in 2013 and ran for four years.
Fox News’ Sasha Savitsky, Mariah Haas and Jessica Napoli contributed to this report.