Northwest Arkansas National Airport saw 63,658 passengers board flights in February, officials reported March 13.
It was an especially busy month for American Airlines, the airport’s largest carrier. American carried 34,530 travelers during the month, or 54.2% of all passengers. It carried 48% of the airport’s travelers in 2022.
American carries XNA passengers to seven destinations: Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, New York LaGuardia, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Los Angeles and Miami. DFW is its leading destination with eight flights a day, followed by Charlotte (4) and Chicago (3).
Its daily trip to Phoenix started Feb. 3.
While January and February were terrific months for XNA, March is the year’s first big performance test as the weather improves and spring break travelers fill up the planes.
In the eight years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, XNA’s March travel was 23% higher than February. If that pattern continues, the airport should see about 79,000 fliers this month.
That should be achievable as the airlines serving XNA have 95,940 seats for sale in March. Filling 79,000 of those seats would mean the airport’s load factor is near 82%, which is solid but not exceptional. Most flights become profitable when the load factor exceeds 70%, but it’s different for every route and every airline.
Additional, XNA passengers benefit this month from having a new destination. Breeze Airways started flying nonstop to Orlando on March 3, and passengers can fly on to Charleston on a “Breeze Thru” without ever getting off the plane in Orlando.
