American Eagle To Make N.Y. Flights

American Eagle, the regional affiliate of American Airlines, is to begin on Dec. 2 regional jet service between the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) and LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

American Eagle will operate two daily round trips between the airports using 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135 jets.

“Thanks to a robust local economy, there is strong demand for nonstop service between northwest Arkansas and New York,” said Tom Bacon, American Eagle’s senior vice president for marketing and planning.

At 1,147 miles, the new route will be American Eagle’s longest. The airline currently offers five daily round-trip flights between XNA and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport (with plans to add another Chicago flight), and 11 daily round trips between northwest Arkansas and Dallas/Fort Worth.

The New York flights will depart from XNA daily at 9:45 a.m. and 11 p.m. The return flights will depart from LaGuardia at 6:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The flights take about three hours each direction.

U.S. Airways recently announced plans to begin round-trip flights Dec. 18 between XNA and Charlotte, N.C., said Kelly Johnson, XNA director. At the same time, however, U.S. Airways is dropping two flights a day to both Little Rock and Kansas City.

By late December, Johnson said, XNA will have 46 departures daily to nine destinations.

Other destinations from XNA include Dallas, Memphis, St. Louis and Atlanta.