Enplanements up in Fort Smith, down at XNA
by July 19, 2012 9:33 am 107 views
Travel out of the Little Rock National Airport and the Fort Smith Regional airport is up for the first half of 2012, but the once-booming Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport is seeing enplanement numbers down more than 2%.
For the first six months of 2012, enplanements at the Little Rock National Airport (Bill & Hillary Clinton Airport) total 574,653, up 8.66% compared to the 2011 period. Enplanements during June totaled 110,099, up 3.07% over June 2011.
If the trend continues, 2012 could mark the end of five consecutive years of enplanement declines at the Little Rock airport. Enplanements at Little Rock National during 2011 totaled 1.103 million, down 1.92% compared to the 2010 period.
For the first six months of 2012, Fort Smith enplanements totaled 43,788, up 6.78% compared to the 2011 period. June enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport totaled 8,698, up 8.87% compared to June 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.
January-June enplanements at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) totaled 283,592, down 2.54% compared to the 2011 period. June enplanements at XNA reached 55,777, down from 57,370 during June 2011.
If the trend at XNA continues, it would result in two consecutive years of enplanement declines. Enplanements at XNA totaled 562,747 during 2011, down 1.38% compared to 2010. 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.
With XNA known for serving travelers doing business with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a recent report from the Global Business Travel Association does not indicate a better outlook for business travel.
The association “significantly” lowered its outlook for U.S.-initiated business travel since last quarter.
“Despite the higher prices and relatively strong demand that have led to solid growth in business travel spend in the last few quarters; growth will moderate for the remainder of the year. GBTA now expects total business travel spending to grow just 2.2% for 2012, reaching $256.5 billion by the end of the year. This represents a downgrade of 1.4% since last quarter, when GBTA estimated growth would be 3.6%,” the association noted in the report.
Continuing, the report noted: “In addition, ongoing concern in the U.S. economy, including low job growth, falling consumer confidence and retail sales, and slowing corporate profits, have created significant headwinds for business travel in the near term. Finally, there is increasing evidence that businesses may be entering into a holding pattern as they wait for the economic environment to solidify.”