Delta Air Lines plans to restart its nonstop service from Northwest Arkansas National Airport to New York LaGuardia.
That restart, announced by the airport on social media over the weekend, begins April 15.
Delta plans to make the trip once a day, departing from XNA at 11:30 a.m. There’s no flight planned on Saturdays.
Delta will go head-to-head with American Airlines in a bid to lure some of the 143 people a day who fly from XNA to the New York/Newark metropolitan area.
American’s flights generally leave XNA between 7 and 8 a.m., and around 2:30 p.m. There’s one Saturday departure on American, often taking off from XNA at 3 p.m.
With American and Delta going to LaGuardia and United Airlines going to the Newark airport, XNA once had three airlines serving the New York/Newark metro. Delta’s last flight to LaGuardia was Nov. 4, 2022; United had ended its Newark service two months earlier.
The most recent federal data available, which is from the second quarter 2023, shows New York/Newark was XNA’s third-busiest destination behind Chicago and Orlando/Sanford. American Airlines in the quarter captured 123 of the 143 people a day who made the trip to the Big Apple. Delta and United captured the remainder, who used connecting flights.
In 2019, when New York/Newark was XNA’s No. 1 destination and had American, Delta and United flying nonstop to it, American was travelers’ favored option. The average of 103 passengers a day on American flights to the city far exceeded how many chose United (47) and Delta (41).
The number of seats available for purchase in April 2019 was far more than it will be in April this year. American, Delta and United offered a combined 260 on the average day in 2019; it’ll be 177 in April this year.
