Northwest Arkansas National Airport rolled past 1 million passengers in record time, hitting the mark in October, new data shows.
Statistics, shared by XNA administrators on Friday, show 121,892 passengers boarded outbound flights in October. It was the sixth consecutive month in which XNA topped 100,000 passengers.
XNA reached 1,060,134 passengers in 2025 by the end of October. It didn’t pass 1 million until November last year.
American, Delta post best months
The keys to XNA’s terrific October were American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. They had their best months ever at XNA.
American carried 59,429 passengers, topping its previous best month (58,661 in June this year). American, which offers nonstop flights to Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O’Hare, Phoenix and six other destinations, accounts for about half of XNA’s 55 flights on a typical weekday.
Delta, meanwhile, saw 26,724 passengers. Its previous high came in July (24,798).
Those airlines increased their numbers because they have both expanded their nonstop options at the airport. Delta added nonstop trips to Detroit and Salt Lake City.
American, meanwhile, restarted its daily trip to Philadelphia in December 2024.
On pace for almost 1.3 million
By year’s end and if it stays on pace with the 12.2% increase in passengers over 2024, XNA should end up with roughly 1.28 million passengers, but that’s likely a best-case scenario.
That year-end calculation doesn’t take into account the federal government shutdown or the impact of the Federal Aviation Administration’s order earlier this month for airlines to reduce the number of flights departing from 40 U.S. airports. That order has led to airlines canceling about 20 flights leaving from XNA this month.
Aaron Burkes, the airport’s president and CEO, estimated Friday that the airport would see no fewer than 1.26 million passengers by year’s end. His estimate assumed the airport will equal last year’s enplanements in November and again in December despite the 12.2% increase so far this year.
His more optimistic projection relies on strong Thanksgiving- and Christmas-related travel, predicting the airport’s best case would be about 1,275,000 passengers.
