Records kept by Northwest Arkansas National Airport show three of the airport’s eight busiest days have occurred in the past three weeks.

The math is stunning: XNA started operating 9,837 days ago, and three of the airport’s eight best days are new additions.

The 5,533 passengers who departed from XNA on Sept. 28 made it the fourth busiest day.

The airport put up its sixth busiest day on Oct. 2 when 5,264 people boarded outbound flights.

The surge started Sept. 18. The 5,207 passengers that day ranks as XNA’s eighth best day.

XNA has exceeded 5,000 passengers in a day just 15 times.

Twenty-three of XNA’s 25 best days have come in the past two years, and most of them have a direct link to a major event being put on by Walmart, which has its home office in Bentonville. No company relies on the airlines serving XNA more than Walmart.

The top two days in XNA’s history were June 6 (6,443 passengers) and June 7 (5,984 passengers) of this year. People who attended the Walmart annual company celebrations headed home on that Friday and Saturday, leading to the massive surge in passengers.