A new airline is touching down in Myrtle Beach and landing new jobs in the Grand Strand.
A welcoming party showered passengers with gifts for Vision Airlines inaugural flights into Myrtle Beach International Airport Thursday.
The reason the airline decided to service the area is clear to Director of Sales and Marketing Clay Meek.
"Certainly, the number of visitors to Myrtle Beach," said Meeks.
Vision spokesperson Ashley Heotaky said the company is bringing jobs.
"Vision and its third party companies will hire a few dozen employees to work directly with the carrier. Our economic impact will generate hundreds of jobs to the area," said Heotaky.
All vision airline flights are on 737 Boeing planes.
Meeks said the airline came just as tourism keeps growing, even as one airline shut down.
"We saw an opportunity with the loss of some of the other carriers(Direct Air) that you've had here to service Myrtle Beach and see success coming into the Myrtle Beach area on Vision Airlines," said Meek.
Vision offers flights to eight new markets including Cleveland, Nashville and Springfield.
Those new markets had one Myrtle Beach family jumping on the first flight out of town.
"I'm very excited. It's great. You don't get stuck in Atlanta with the direct flight," said Myrtle Beach resident Joshua Smith. "It's actually half the price. So it was great."
Vision plans to offer flights out of Myrtle Beach until October when they'll suspend operations until next year's tourist season.
To lure new visitors to Myrtle Beach, the company plans to offer fares as low as $29 in and out of Myrtle Beach from now until June 6th.
