Heavy summertime traffic on American Airlines, combined with increased flying by low-cost carriers, helped Northwest Arkansas National Airport set a new monthly passenger record in July.
XNA reported Tuesday that 129,397 passengers boarded commercial flights at the airport during the month. That surpassed the previous record of 129,045 passengers, set just one month earlier.
American, XNA’s largest carrier, accounted for nearly half of all departing passengers in July, with 63,204 travelers, or 48.9% of the airport’s total. It was the third consecutive month American topped 60,000 passengers at XNA — a milestone the airline had never reached at the airport before this year.
Breeze Airways also had a record-setting month.
The low-cost carrier, which began service at XNA in mid-2021, carried 4,241 passengers from the airport in July. The figure eclipsed its previous monthly record of 4,158 passengers, set in May. Breeze serves destinations including New Orleans and Tampa from XNA.
Allegiant Air, which typically sees its strongest traffic at XNA during the summer, also had its busiest month of the year in July, with 14,726 passengers. That fell short of the airline’s all-time monthly record at XNA, however, when 18,222 passengers flew Allegiant in July 2025.
Frontier Airlines, a much smaller presence at XNA, also saw a strong July. The airline carried more than 2,700 passengers during the month, its best performance since October 2025. Frontier currently serves XNA with flights to Denver and accounts for roughly 1% of the airport’s annual passenger traffic.
The record traffic comes as XNA continues a major expansion of its facilities to keep pace with the region’s rapid growth.
The airport earlier this year completed a $36 million terminal modernization project. Its next major undertaking will be the western concourse expansion, which will extend the terminal to the west and add gates, passenger waiting areas, restaurants and other amenities.
XNA plans to use the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), a low-interest federal loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau, to finance its western concourse and a future rental-car parking deck.
XNA will become the first entity in Arkansas to use TIFIA financing. The loans are expected to save the airport more than $30 million on the concourse and another $15 million on the parking deck.
TIFIA and other innovative financing tools can help stretch limited infrastructure dollars further. Greater use of these tools across Arkansas could help the state make needed transportation investments and keep pace with growing infrastructure needs, including in Northwest Arkansas.
