Airline traffic up in Fort Smith, down at XNA
by February 14, 2012 3:41 pm 87 views
January enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport were up more than 4%, continuing a trend of traffic improvements during 2011.
The story is different at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA), where January enplanements totaled 37,711, down 10.4% compared to January 2011.
Although it has far fewer enplanements, the Fort Smith Regional Airport was the only airport among the three largest commercial airfields in Arkansas to post an enplanement gain during 2011.
Enplanements at XNA totaled 562,747 during 2011, down 1.38% compared to 2010. Traffic at XNA has fallen since June, when year-to-date traffic for the first half of the year was up almost 4% compared to the 2010 period. During 2010, XNA had 570,625 enplanements, up 5.49% over 2009.
XNA’s first full year of traffic was 1999, and the airport posted eight consecutive years of enplanement gains before seeing a decline in 2008.
January enplanements in Fort Smith totaled 6,583, up 4.5% compared to 6,297 during January 2011. Enplanements with American Airlines during January totaled 3,944, up over 3,799 during January 2011. Enplanements with Delta totaled 2,639 during January, up compared to 2,498 during January 2011.
Enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport during 2011 eked out a 0.12% gain over 2010, marking two consecutive years of enplanement growth at the airport. For the year, the airport posted 86,234 enplanements compared to 86,129 during 2010.
Enplanements at Little Rock National during 2011 totaled 1.103 million, down 1.92% compared to the 2010 period. The 2011 decline marks the fifth consecutive year of declining enplanements at Arkansas’ largest commercial airport.
January traffic for American Airlines in the U.S. fell 1.1%, with total boardings in all regions served by American totaling 6.769 million during January, up 0.9%.
American Eagle enplanements totaled 1.321 million during January, up 7.8% compared to January 2011.
American is the primary carrier at Arkansas’ three largest commercial airfields.
A report from Airlines for America (formerly known as the Air Transport Association) predicts business travel using airlines will grow in 2012. (Link here for the detailed PDF report on the air travel industry.)
However, Moody’s reports that continued sluggish U.S. and European economies are likely to push enplanements down in 2012. Moody’s predicts enplanement changes will range between up 1% to down 4% in 2012.
“Moody’s outlook for the US airport sector remains negative due to the uncertainty surrounding three key growth drivers: economic conditions, airline capacity expansion, and federal funding,” Moody’s noted in its report. “While the stabilized US economy led to limited enplanement growth across the sector during 2010 and early 2011, growth in 2012 is likely to be hampered by reduced airline capacity and uncertain economic conditions.”