Fall’s best month in terms of passengers didn’t disappoint at Northwest Arkansas National Airport.
Data made public today by airport administrators shows the airlines serving XNA boarded 78,892 passengers last month. With business travel picking up, October trailed May, June and July, all big months for leisure travel.
Administrators early this year predicted XNA would see 830,000 passengers take flights by year’s end. With 696,145 passengers in the year’s first 10 months, that prediction seems well within reach. It’s far behind XNA’s best year (922,533 passengers in 2019).
No airline was busier than American at XNA. It carried 40,382 passengers in October, which was its best passenger volume of the year. The airline carried about 51% of all XNA passengers. It’s typical for the airline to carry about 47% of the travelers.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines remain close for the airport’s No. 2 carrier. In October, it was Delta that carried 12,756 passengers, 149 more than United.
While American, Delta and United being so busy suggests business travel may be continuing to return at XNA, another clue is that the low-cost carriers were a smaller portion of the passengers. Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines and Breeze Airways accounted for 16.5% of all October travelers. Their share for the year exceeds 20%.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect total number of passengers for October and for the year’s first 10 months. XNA corrected its figures and this story includes the changes.
