October is almost always a big month at Northwest Arkansas National Airport, but it’s never been this good.
The airport surpassed 90,000 passengers in a single month at a time outside of the busy summer travel season. A report from XNA made public Tuesday shows 90,115 people boarded flights, about 13,000 more than October 2022.
While October rarely beats out May, June and July in terms of passengers, it is an important time for business travelers. It’s also the last big month of the year before boardings decrease just a tad in November and December.
October was XNA’s 300th month in operation, and it’s exceeded 90,000 passengers in a month just six times. Four of those times were this year; the others were in 2019, XNA’s best year.
Last month was the 10th consecutive one in which XNA’s passengers exceeded the same month in 2022.
It’s highly probable that 2023 will end up being XNA’s best year, but it’ll take a significant and unexpected uptick to reach 1 million passengers for the year.
The airport is at 826,857 passengers through 10 months, and it should sail past the 922,533 boardings in 2019. It’s on pace for 993,000 boardings in 2023.
