Northwest Arkansas National Airport for the third time in a row recorded the best month in the airport’s history.
The July data, which was shared by XNA administrators last week, shows the airport saw 108,822 passengers. The number beat June’s record-breaking 108,777 people who flew from XNA. June topped May, the previous best month in airport history with 99,357
XNA remains well on its way to a record year for passengers. It saw 991,489 enplanements last year and is on pace this year to board near 1.1 million.
While many airports haven’t reported their individual July numbers, the Transportation Security Administration reported last month that July 7 was the busiest day in the history of U.S. airports. It screened more than 3 million people that day, about 35 per second.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at the time said the record day could be attributed to a strong national economy, and he suggested the big numbers were likely to continue.
It’s certainly continuing at XNA, and the airport is likely to see its numbers a little less lofty in August and September. That’s because children head back to school in August.
July was especially good for Allegiant Air, which boarded 15,320 of XNA’s passengers. The airline, which has operated at XNA since 2009 with twice-a-week flights to most of its destinations, has had just one bigger month than July this year (July 2022).
Allegiant’s load factor, which is the number of the planes’ seats that are occupied by a passenger, was 87% in July at XNA.
American Airlines carried 46% of all XNA passengers in July. It’s XNA’s leading carrier, but its portion of travelers often slips a little during the summer months as vacationers buy more seats on low-cost carriers Allegiant, Breeze Airways and Frontier Airlines.
