Regional Airport Ahead of Schedule
by July 26, 1999 12:00 am 65 views
Fayetteville’s last remaining commercial airline announced it will leave for the new regional airport at Highfill, almost as an afterthought to the mass exodus of four other air carriers by the end of the first quarter of 1999.
The loss of US Airways Express, owned by Air Midwest Inc. of Wichita, Kan., means all five of the Fayetteville municipal airport’s former air carriers have left. But the fate of Fayetteville’s Drake Field and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport were both probably determined when American Eagle became the first to go in November of 1998 following that month’s opening of the regional airport.
Scott Van Laningham, staff director for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority, says the new airport expected 1999 to be a transition year. To stay within reach of its expected 200,000 enplanements, it would only need one airline to move each quarter from Fayetteville to Highfill.
With Trans World Express following American in January and Northwest Airlink and Delta connector Atlantic Southeast Airlines moving in March, it got four by the end of the first quarter. Laningham says the addition of US Airways to Highfill’s fold means the new airport’s enplanement projects are now around 300,000.
US Airways will begin flying out of Highfill on Sept. 9 with daily service to Kansas City and Little Rock. A portion of the regional airport’s terminal space just east of ASA’s will be used by US Airways for a ticket counter and bag belt loading area.