Northwest Arkansas National Airport continues to rebuild on its impressive success of 2019, statistics shared earlier this week show.
The number of passengers who boarded flights at XNA in May was 54,270, the airport’s best month since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It last topped 50,000 in February 2020 with 67,144.
During record-breaking 2019 when XNA saw more than 922,000 passengers, May produced 85,000 of them, but that May number dropped to just 8,700 last year as air travel slowed and the nation began adjusting to the pandemic.
Every airline serving XNA — Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier and United — saw more passengers in May than April and those numbers are expected to rise in June and July as airlines continue to ramp up what they offer at XNA.
American Airlines, XNA’s primary carrier, averaged 65 passengers per flight in May. It used planes with 50 to 76 passengers, and the stats suggest most of those flights had high load factors.
Allegiant Air, which had 41 flights take off from XNA in May, had its highest number of passengers since July of last year. It averaged 118 passengers per flight, using planes with between 156 and 186 seats.
Frontier’s performance was strong, too. Its 13 flights to Denver in May on 180- and 186-seat Airbuses averaged 159 passengers.
June’s passenger count should go higher as airlines continue to add service back at XNA. Moreover, newcomer Breeze Airways launched its nonstop service to Tampa on June 17, giving passengers a new destination to explore.
