Northwest Arkansas travelers last week gained a new way to get to the Sunshine State.
That’s because Breeze Airways started its twice-a-week, nonstop flight to Pensacola, a service that’s available on Thursdays and Sundays.
Breeze announced its plan to fly from XNA to Pensacola in May.
Pensacola became Northwest Arkansas National Airport’s eighth Florida destination, serving airports in four areas of the state. There are flights to Fort Lauderdale and Miami; Sanford and Orlando; Clearwater and Tampa; and Destin and Pensacola.
Breeze at XNA
Breeze has expanded and changed its offerings at XNA since first arriving at the airport in mid-2021. It started off with flights to San Antonio, New Orleans and Tampa. While the New Orleans and Tampa flights are now considered big successes, the San Antonio route didn’t survive.
Later, the airline successfully added an Orlando flight that still flies today, and it offered “Breeze-thru” flights that landed in Florida briefly before going on to Charleston. That Charleston flight is no longer occurs.
Despite the choppy initial performance that seems to have improved consistently over time, the contributions of Breeze to the NWA market are immense. The airline made big impacts on how many people travel each day to Tampa and New Orleans.
In 2019, just 15 people a day flew from XNA to New Orleans, likely connecting at Dallas/Fort Worth (American Airlines), Houston (United Airlines) or Atlanta (Delta Air Lines) before flying on to The Big Easy. While it flies there only twice a week, Breeze dominates the XNA-to-New Orleans market. It captures more than half of the 35 people a day who go to New Orleans.
It’s impact on the Tampa market is more dramatic, but some of the improvement can be credited to Allegiant Air. The Tampa metro was XNA’s 19th largest market in 2019 with 18 people a day going there. With both Allegiant and Breeze now offering twice a week flights to the Tampa metro, it now ranks 12th at 80 travelers a day.
Challenging Pensacola
Pensacola could be a more difficult sell for Breeze, and it’s complicated by Allegiant offering flights to nearby airports in Gulf Shores, Ala., and Destin.
In 2019, Pensacola was XNA’s 36th biggest market with just six people a day traveling there from Northwest Arkansas. A report published earlier this year shows the city isn’t among XNA’s Top 50 destinations.
To be successful, Breeze must capture some of the passengers headed to the two Allegiant-served airports. While the service to Gulf Shores is too new to know how many people a day will go there over time, Allegiant captures just about all of the 34 people a day who fly to Destin from Northwest Arkansas.
