Fort Smith, XNA see February passenger gains (Updated)
by March 23, 2012 12:17 pm 117 views
February saw big enplanement increases at the Fort Smith Regional Airport and the Northwest Arkansas Airport (XNA), but only Fort Smith has a year-to-date increase.
February enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport totaled 6,423, up 20.8% compared to February 2011. For the first two months of 2012, Fort Smith enplanements are 13.006, up 11.65% compared to the 2011 period.
Traffic at Fort Smith was driven by an 11.75% increase in enplanements with Delta Airlines, and an 11.59% boost with American.
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.
February enplanements at XNA totaled 38,901, down 8.5% compared to February 2011. Year-to-date enplanements at XNA total 76,612, down 1.69% compared to the 2011 period.
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.
The Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport (Little Rock) reported 80,877 enplanements during February, up 19.49% compared to February 2011. For the first two months of 2012, the airport has recorded 161,722 enplanements, up 11.63& compared to the 2011 period.
The January-February activity at the Central Arkansas airport is certainly a new trend.
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.
February traffic for American Airlines in the U.S. was up 4.4%. Year-to-date boardings in all regions served by American totaled 13.183 million, up 3.9%.
American is the primary carrier at Arkansas’ three largest commercial airfields.
Year-to-date boardings in all regions served by Delta Airlines totaled 11.421 million, up 4.1%.
U.S. airlines carried 730 million total system passengers during 2011, up 1.3% from 2010, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Domestically, the airlines carried 637.5 million passengers, up 1.3% from 2010. Internationally, the U.S. carried 92.5 million passengers, up 1.7% from 2010.
The top five U.S. airlines by enplaned passengers during 2011 were:
Delta: 113.485 million
Southwest: 110.587 million
American: 86.042 million
US Airways: 52.921 million
United: 50.474 million