Northwest Arkansas National Airport will add new nonstop flights in the coming months, taking off to Detroit and Salt Lake City.
Delta Air Lines updated its flight schedule this weekend, and it shows the new nonstop options from XNA to both cities. The additions will bring XNA’s total number of nonstop destinations to 24.
It’s normal for a new nonstop route to create at least a 50% increase in travel to the destination.
Consumers are likely to view Salt Lake as the bigger win for Northwest Arkansas travelers as it re-establishes a westbound option on Delta that hasn’t existed since 2008.
The addition of Detroit, which also used to be a nonstop city from XNA, is important for international travelers. However, the flight’s 5 p.m. departure time from Northwest Arkansas isn’t ideal to make a connection to most of Detroit’s international options. The flight starts Nov. 11.
Northwest Airlines, which later merged with Delta, started going to Detroit in September 2005. The flights took off twice a day on 50-seat jets. The service lasted for about a decade.
The new Delta flight to Salt Lake City starts Feb. 13, departing at 5:50 p.m.
Delta first flew from XNA to Salt Lake on Jan. 1, 2005, and the service lasted three years. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at the time that the flights were 70% full, and its cancellation was tied to a Delta decision to eliminate 5% of all service nationwide. The airline blamed high fuel price for the route’s elimination.
Neither Salt Lake or Detroit rank among XNA’s top 20 destinations, but travel to both cities is likely to increase because there’s a nonstop option.
Salt Lake
Salt Lake sits at No. 25, and about 23 people a day flew there from XNA in the one-year period that ended in March this year. About half of the travelers relied on an American Airlines connection to get to Utah’s largest city.
Delta likely sees information from its passengers’ final destinations that have the airline now prioritizing Salt Lake. The airline has hubs in Salt Lake, Los Angeles and Seattle, and XNA travelers will benefit from having a new way to get to those cities.
Motor City
No. 30 Detroit sees just 15 people a day fly there from XNA.
It’s important because of the international flight options it provides. Delta offers nonstop service to 18 international destinations, including Toronto, Montreal, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Seoul, London, Rome, Shanghai and Tokyo. However, the flight’s 5 p.m. departure time from XNA makes it convenient for only three international trips that evening to Paris, Toronto and Montreal.
While not all that many passengers are going to Salt Lake and Detroit from XNA now, it’s probable that the numbers will increase.
XNA travelers have proven they’ll support a new daily nonstop route, and they’ll fly more often to places where nonstops are available.
There were big increases in the number of travelers flying to the Tampa/St. Petersburg metro after Breeze Airways and Allegiant Air started offered twice-a-week nonstops to airports there. Tampa now ranks at XNA’s 10th busiest destination.
Similarly, Phoenix sits at No. 8 after American Airlines decided in 2023 to offer daily nonstop service. While Allegiant offers twice-a-week seasonal nonstop service to Phoenix in the winter and spring, having the daily service offered by American makes it more convenient to get there.
