Fort Smith airport sees traffic gains; gets fed funds for taxiway work

Enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport continue to grow despite a July decline in enplanements with the two airlines that serve the airport.

July saw 8,221 enplanements in Fort Smith, up 8.68% over the 7,564 in July 2009. The July traffic followed an 8.6% gain in June, a 1.9% dip in May and an 8.6% gain in April. Enplanements total 49,320 for the first seven months of 2010, up 2.7% from the 47,983 for the same period in 2009.

Delta reported a 4.4% dip in regional system traffic in July, with comparable traffic down 1.5% for the first seven months of 2010. American Eagle reported enplanements of 1.432 million in July, down 4.9% compared to July 2009. Year-to-date, American Eagle enplanements are up 0.9%.

The July traffic is the first year-over-year true enplanement comparison at the airport. In May 2009, American Eagle, Northwest and Delta were flying out of the Fort Smith Regional Airport. That number dropped to two — American and Delta —  in June following the merger of Northwest and Delta. Therefore, July marked the first month of pure two-carrier comparisons.

Traffic at the regional airport has seen two years of consecutive dips. Enplanements in 2009 at the Fort Smith airport totaled 78,432, down 9.8% from the 87,030 enplanements in 2008. Passenger enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport totaled 87,030 in 2008, down 12.2% from the 99,127 enplanements in 2007. The 2009 traffic total was the lowest at the airport in the past 10 years.

Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) is also recovering from two years of consecutive declines. For the first six months of 2010 (XNA had not reported July traffic as of Aug. 6), the airport had 273,589 enplanements, up 5.9% over the 258,150 in the 2009 period.

XNA and the Fort Smith Regional Airport received $5.091 million and $1.24 million, respectively, from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a joint release issued Thursday (Aug. 5) from the offices of U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

The money will help expand the XNA terminal so it can serve additional aircraft and passengers. Fort Smith will use its funds to renovate the taxiway used by planes to move on and off the runway, repair runway lighting, and acquire new snow removal equipment for the Fort Smith Regional Airport.

Airline traffic in the U.S. appears to be improving.

The Air Transport Association reported July 21 that 1.4% more passengers traveled on U.S. airlines in June, and international passenger revenue rose 38%.

“It is clear from these positive results that the recovering U.S. economy is enabling airlines to dig out from the very deep hole of a year ago,” ATA President and CEO James C. May said in the statement.

PAST DECADE OF ENPLANEMENTS (Fort Smith Regional Airport)
2009: 78,432
2008: 87,030
2007: 99,127
2006: 94,717
2005: 102,607
2004: 92,928
2003: 90,493
2002: 87,944
2001: 95,419
2000: 104,182