The number of passengers boarding flights at Northwest Arkansas National Airport led to the third biggest month in its history.
The data was shared earlier today by the airport, and it provides great insight into how busy it is at XNA and for each of its airlines.
The 90,403 people hopping on planes has XNA on pace for its biggest summer ever. The data continues to show 2023 is well on its way to eclipsing 2019 as the airport’s best year.
XNA’s busiest time was June 2019 with 91,305 passengers, and that month was followed by an almost-as-good July (91,222 passengers).
It’s a good bet that XNA’s best month will become June 2023 based on how many people passed through the airport’s Transportation Security Checkpoint in its first few days and the fact that records show June is almost always XNA’s busiest month. Fueled by the number of people headed home after attending the Walmart shareholders’ meeting and celebration events, June 2 and 3 this year became the airport’s two biggest days in history.
Great May for Breeze
May was an especially good month for Breeze Airways, the low-cost carrier providing service in Northwest Arkansas since mid-2021. It topped 3,000 passengers for the third consecutive month. With its flights going to New Orleans, Tampa and Orlando, Breeze hadn’t previously topped 3,000 in any month.
Using planes that seat 108, 118 and 137 passengers, Breeze averaged 97 travelers per trip in May.
Planes are 90% Full
Other data shows Breeze’s competitors serving XNA are just as busy.
American Airlines and its regional partners, which had flight that departed 632 times and carried 50% of the XNA travelers in May, averaged 71 passengers. It uses five different planes at XNA, but 70% of them are the 80-seat Embraer 175.
Delta Air Lines, which uses the 110-seat Boeing 717 for three-fourths of its XNA flights, averaged 94 passengers per trip.
United Airlines, which sent flights from XNA to Denver, Houston and Chicago O’Hare, filled up about 88% of available seats last month. The airline uses 50- and 76-seat planes at XNA.
Allegiant Air, which uses planes that seat between 156 and 186 people, averaged 144 on each flight.
Frontier Airlines, which flies exclusively to Denver and uses planes that have 180 to 240 seats, averaged 145 people per trip.
