Northwest Arkansas National Airport last month saw 70,444 passengers board flights, information shared by the airport this week shows.
It was about 15,000 more people boarding flights at XNA in August than the same month last year, but 9,000 less than July this year.
August and its calendar neighbor September are rarely busy at XNA as summertime trips come to an end and the school year begins.
With thousands of leisure travelers boarding flights in May, June and July, XNA’s low-cost carriers Allegiant Air, Breeze Airways and Frontier Airlines accounted for 24.2% of all travelers. In August, they accounted for 19.1%.
September could be rough at XNA as several nonstop options won’t be offered. For example, Allegiant Air won’t make trips to St. Pete/Clearwater again until October, and its nonstop flights to Fort Lauderdale don’t’ show up on its schedule until March.
But it’s not just Allegiant that’s adjusted its schedule from XNA. Breeze Airways paused its twice-a-week flights to New Orleans earlier this summer. They’ll restart in October.
The only airline that saw more traffic in August than July was Delta Air Lines, carrying 900 more passengers.
Overall traffic at XNA should pick up in October as it’s an especially busy month for business travel.
