NWA Regional Airport Gets Official Designation

It wasn’t easy, but the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport has been assigned the three-letter designation that will identify it on the world’s aviation maps.

When the airport opens Nov. 1, it will be known as XNA.

The Federal Aviation Administration assigned the designation to the airport last year. However, when the Airport Authority notified the International Association of Travel Agents about the designation, the authority learned that XNA was also the designation of a facility in Narbonne, France.

The Airport Authority wasn’t dissuaded. The authority had asked for the designation from among 270 choices that were available because the letters implied reference to Northwest Arkansas. When officials learned that the unidentified facility in France had never used the XNA designation, they were able to persuade travel agents to switch the designation to Northwest Arkansas.

The designation allows American Eagle, the only airline that has committed to the new airport, to begin printing tickets for the airport’s opening. American Eagle, a subsidiary of American Airlines Inc., plans to fly three round trips daily from the regional airport to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and 10 daily round trips to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Currently, American Eagle flies from Drake Field in Fayetteville.

The regional airport is a $109 million facility being built near Highfill in Benton County.