Passengers flying out of Northwest Arkansas National Airport saved a combined $12.5 million on airfares in the second quarter of this year, new federal data suggests.
Calculating that dollar savings in April, May and June this year compared to the same months in 2024 is made possible by reviewing information from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Volaire Aviation Consulting provides administrators at XNA with a report about the federal data four times each year.
The overall savings of more than $12 million amounts to $38 per roundtrip for each of the 329,738 people who flew during the second quarter this year.
The average roundtrip fare during the quarter was $508, but that figure includes both the international travelers, who paid an average of $1,188 roundtrip, and those who were on domestic flights ($432). The flights were 7% less expensive in the second quarter this year.
Nonstop access boosts numbers
XNA saw more people traveling to each of its Top 5 destinations (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando/Sanford, Dallas/Fort Worth), but there were much more significant increases in how many people went to Philadelphia, Detroit and Salt Lake City.
Those improvements came because American Airlines in December 2024 started flying nonstop to Philadelphia. Delta Air Lines, meanwhile started offering nonstop service to Detroit and Salt Lake City.
The federal data shows 91% of the people going to Philadelphia relied on American to get them there. The destination overall saw its number of travelers going there from XNA rise from 28 each day in the second quarter 2024 to 52 in the second quarter this year.
Similarly and thanks in part to the Delta nonstops, Detroit saw 34 people a day fly in from XNA in the second quarter this year compared to 18 in 2024. Salt Lake increased from 29 to 46 a day in the same quarters.
23 Risers in the Top 25
XNA remains on pace to have record enplanements in 2025, and that’s led to just about every destination seeing more people go there.
Just two of XNA’s Top 25 destinations — Atlanta and Nashville — saw a decrease in the number of people going there, and those drops were tiny.
Nashville, which has twice-a-week nonstop service offered by Allegiant Air, went from 60 people a day to 59 in the second quarter this year. Atlanta which is served nonstop by Delta, went from 118 to 117 a day.
In addition to the travel increases to Philadelphia, Detroit and Salt Lake City, some of the biggest boosts in travel occurred in how many people went to Chicago (plus 32 people a day), New York (+26), New Orleans (+16), Minneapolis/St. Paul (+15), Dallas/Fort Worth (+14), Austin (+14), Las Vegas (+14) and Miami/Fort Lauderdale (+13).
Better Austin pricing
Airlines offer nonstop flights from XNA to all of those rising destinations with one exception: Austin. The reason Austin saw such a big improvement could have something to do with the average airfare, which decreased from $536 in the second quarter 2024 to $422 in the second quarter this year.
That $114 improvement in the cost of a trip to and from Austin wasn’t the only place a person could go and see at least a $100 savings compared to the second quarter 2024. Trips were less expensive to Detroit (minus $234), Philadelphia (- $156), Sacramento (-$146), Boston (-$136) and Seattle (-$134).
