For the third time in five months, Northwest Arkansas National Airport set a record for its single highest number of passengers.
The 110,456 people who boarded flights in October beat the previous best of 108,822 set in July. XNA had never exceeded 100,000 passengers in a month prior to this year, but it’s now topped that mark four times.
The next big number coming from XNA should be setting the record for annual passengers. The current record was set in 2023 with 991,489, but that seems almost certain to fall by the wayside. XNA is at more than 946,000 through the year’s first 10 months.
XNA should top 1.1 million passenger this year.
American Airlines, XNA’s busiest airline, did the heavy lifting in October, seeing 55,074 people board its flights. American’s previous best month was September this year with 50,508.
Much like September, it was legacy carriers American, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines doing the most flying. While low-cost carriers Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and Breeze Airways can account for more than 20% of the airport’s travelers in the summer months, October is about business travel and the LCCs were responsible for carrying about 12% of the XNA travelers.
While October generally bests November and December travel in terms of volume, the year’s two remaining months could see a boost created by new routes. Delta started its new nonstop to Detroit earlier this month, and American gets going with its nonstop to Philadelphia next month.
