Salt Lake City is a major hub for Delta Air Lines and getting a nonstop flight going there from Northwest Arkansas National Airport was a huge win for the region.

The flight from XNA to Salt Lake City, announced by the airline in August last year, takes off for the first time next week. It’s easy to see why the new flight will be valuable to the people who live in Northwest Arkansas.

Here are a few reasons to like Delta’s decision to go west from XNA.

Western access

While Delta is a terrific airline, it has never provided the same variety of flight options from XNA as American Airlines. At the time of the airport’s opening in 1998 and for more than two decades, Delta remained the airport’s No. 2 airline.

In the past two years, Delta has taken a step back, and now sits at No. 3 behind United Airlines. United last year carried about 19% of all XNA travelers; Delta was near 15%.

By establishing a new nonstop to Detroit in November and now with the Salt Lake addition, Delta is giving nonstop access to cities that haven’t been served from XNA in years. Delta once upon a time flew from XNA to Salt Lake, and Northwest Airlines (which merged with Delta in 2010) provided a flight to Detroit. However, neither route became a staple at XNA and was eventually discontinued.

With Detroit and Salt Lake, Delta is well positioned to re-establish itself as the clear No. 2 at XNA.

In fact, it would be more surprising if Delta doesn’t rise back to No. 2. That’s because future schedules for March, April, May and beyond show Delta will have 200 to 300 more seats per day for sale on flights than United. This additional capacity is expected to make a significant impact.

Time savings

This is why going directly west matters: It saves real time.

As an example, assume you’re wanting to fly Delta from XNA to San Francisco. Because no airline flies there nonstop, a connection and a layover is necessary.

For a Delta passenger traveling to San Francisco with a layover in Salt Lake, the total travel time is six hours. The next best Delta option is to connect in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and it takes a little more than eight hours to get all the way to San Francisco.

In terms of time efficiency for those headed west, Salt Lake City immediately becomes the Delta travelers’ best option.

For those on United, Denver is a solid option for those going west. American, however, wins the day when it comes to going west from XNA as it has nonstop flights to Los Angeles, Phoenix and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Catching Tulsa

Delta already has twice-a-day nonstop flights from Tulsa International Airport to Salt Lake City, and having Delta provide a flight to Salt Lake from XNA is important to Northwest Arkansas as a whole.

That’s because every passenger who travels via XNA creates a positive economic impact that’s not felt when the person flies from Tulsa.

That economic impact is created when a traveler pays a $4.50 passenger-facility charge that’s collected by airlines when tickets are purchased, and the money is sent to the airport. Other economic impacts come from paying to park at XNA, renting a vehicle, purchasing food or drinks in the terminal, and from spending money in other ways as they drive to and from the Arkansas airport. Every passenger is worth a few dollars in economic benefit, and the spending creates jobs in Northwest Arkansas.

For the Arkansan flying out of Tulsa, most of that impact goes to the Tulsa region.

 A leakage report prepared each quarter for XNA by Volaire Aviation Consulting shows how many travelers in the airport’s so-called catchment area are choosing to fly from XNA instead of other airports. From an overall perspective, 75% of fliers are choosing to fly from XNA, and Tulsa is the clear second-best option (9%; Kansas City 5%; Springfield-Branson 3% etc.).

But when it comes to Salt Lake, the numbers aren’t so rosy for XNA. In the second quarter of last year, XNA kept just 53% of travelers who are headed to the Utah city; 30% picked Tulsa, and they’re likely to be using one of those Delta nonstops.

With the Delta nonstop to Salt Lake starting next week, XNA should start seeing some of those Tulsa fliers rely more often on their home airport.