Despite Recent Turbulence, Airports Confident They Can Fly

General aviation in Northwest Arkansas is stable, but airports across the region are still digging out of the depths of the Great Recession.

In comparison to the glory days of 2006, a peak year for flight operations, the industry has a long way to go.

While the downturn slowed business travel, it all but gutted recreational aviation, and, until those numbers return, total activity in Benton and Washington counties will remain a shadow of what it once was.

For 2013, total flight operations at the region’s three largest general aviation airports — Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers — were still down 36 percent compared to that of 2006.

But at Carter Field in Rogers, business travel, anchored by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its Beaver Lake Aviation, is recovering. At Drake Field in Fayetteville, the first quarter of 2014 was better than the first quarter of 2013.

At Springdale Municipal, executives in town for a day of business still touch down in their corporate jets. In Bentonville at Louise M. Thaden Field, meanwhile, the process of transforming the sleepy airport into a teeming community hub with an entrance on Southwest I Street is well underway.

The general consensus among airport leaders is that things are better now than they were a few years back, and the undergirding sentiment is one of guarded optimism. But the Federal Aviation Administration, in its 20-year forecast for 2014-2034, predicts sluggish growth.

According to the report, the general aviation fleet will grow at an annual rate of just 0.5 percent, and the total number of flight hours is expected to grow by just 1.4 percent over the 20-year interval. The FAA report also concludes that business usage will expand at a faster pace than that for recreation. What all that means for the region’s airports over the long haul remains to be seen. But the known quantity is that, here in Northwest Arkansas, the string of airports along the spine of Interstate 49 comprise one of the state’s most important centers of general aviation, and since 2010 about $8.1 million has been spent on improvements.

For Dave Powell, owner of Summit Aviation, the fixed base operator at both the Bentonville and Springdale airports, the FAA report, while important, does not necessarily tell the entire story, particularly that of Northwest Arkansas.

“I would be more optimistic [than the FAA],” he said. “It’s a good time to invest and grow in aviation.”

 

‘We’ll Fly More’

Aviation pioneer Glenn Martin came to Fayetteville in 1911 with his silk-and-bamboo biplane and gave a demonstration at the Washington County Fair and thus began the region’s association with flight.

Drake Field, the region’s first airport, was founded in 1929, and it would be the area’s only commercial airfield, until being replaced by Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) in 1998.

Commercial airlines make their money off the parking lot, but without that source of revenue, Drake Field had to reinvent itself as an airport for general aviation, which includes everything outside of commercial and military activity. The transition wasn’t easy, but in the booming economy of the early 2000s, Drake Field made the transformation.

“Every day we had jets filled with architects and engineers and even construction crews,” said James Nicholson, the airport’s financial coordinator.

And then the economy soured.

“A lot of our tenants sold their planes and left, and we had vacant hangars,” Nicholson said.

Total airport operations at Drake Field dropped by 37 percent, from 48,042 in 2006 to 29,907 in 2010, and Million Air, the airport’s fixed base operator, eventually pulled out and the city had to retake control in March. While business has picked up annually since 2010, and while the first quarter of 2014 was up 13.7 percent over the first quarter of 2013, activity at Drake Field, and the revenue it makes off of fuel sales, hasn’t fully recovered.

“It’s not the mecca it once was,” Nicholson said. “My feeling is that general aviation is still stagnant.”

But Drake Field is not down and out. A Boeing 737 can still land there. Drake Field is also home to SkyVenture Aviation Inc., a busy flight school that attracts budding pilots from across the nation and the world. Owner Mark Frankum said his school just had the best first quarter in its history, with 42 graduates, and if business continues, 2014 will be the school’s best year.

Pilots, Frankum said, buy planes, buy fuel, keep their aircraft in rented hangars and conduct a lot of takeoffs and landings. It all adds up to revenue for the airport.

“Flight training is the tide that lifts all ships,” Frankum said, who’s bullish on the future of general aviation. “Going forward, it’s inconceivable that we’ll fly less. We’ll fly more. I don’t see us riding trains again.”

 

Carter Recovery

According to the 2013 statistical data book by the General Aviation Manufacturer’s Association, the industry contributes as much as $150 billion to the U.S. economy and employs more than 1.2 million people. In Arkansas, 90 general aviation airports create $494 million in economic activity, according to the office of Gov. Mike Beebe.

A big part of general aviation operations is business and corporate travel, and no airport in Northwest Arkansas does it better than Carter Field in Rogers. Boasting the most home-based jets in the state at 24, Carter Field is the airport of choice for top executives calling on Walmart.

Though Rogers was hit hard by the recession — total airport operations dropped by over half, from 31,289 per year in 2006 to 15,609 per year in 2011 — airport manager David Krutsch said there is reason to believe that the airport is recovering, even if 2013 numbers were down from 2012.

He describes the overall spirit in Rogers aviation as “robust” and said Carter Field is experiencing a “moderated growth trend,” one that was not helped in the short-term by a long, wet winter. Anchored by two dozen jets, one of the largest fleets of based aircraft in the state and ties to the world’s largest retailer, the Rogers airport is poised for a rebound, Krutsch said.

In his position since 2005, he was in the cockpit during the economic downturn.

“A lot of recreational flying activity diminished and so did business activity, but not to the same extent,” he said. “That was a national reflection, not just in Northwest Arkansas.”

While Carter Field is the leader in corporate transportation, the airport is still looking to add a flight school to its list of tenants.

“We are having dialogue with potential service providers,” Krutsch said. “If successful, we would expect a significant increase in operations, but it would not change the airport’s classification or core market fundamentals.”

 

Two Traffic Lights

Springdale Municipal, the region’s second-oldest airfield and by several standards one of the area’s biggest and busiest, sits at the center of the market. It has the history, the hangars, 11 based jets and a flight school. If a businessperson needs to go north or south once they touchdown, Springdale provides the perfect starting point.

Nobody knows this better than Powell, whose Summit Aviation replaced the failed Pinnacle Jetride as the fixed base operator three years ago. While it might not have the appeal of Drake Field or the corporate profile of Carter Field, Springdale Municipal remains important, Powell said.

“The climate of growth and prosperity is good in Springdale,” he said. While total operations might still be down from the boom, fuel sales are creeping back up, and a string of companies along U.S. 265 on the east side of the airport support a healthy, pro-business atmosphere, Powell said.

Standing in stark contrast to the gritty, industrialized airport in Springdale is the other airport where Powell’s Summit Aviation serves as the fixed base operator — Thaden Field in Bentonville. There, the focus is on piston-powered prop planes, flown predominantly for pleasure, and a flight school.

“We’re not trying to become a jet hub,” Powell said.

The process of integrating the airport into the community is also a priority. For years tucked away and out of sight on Airport Road, Thaden Field will soon have an entrance facing Southwest I Street, which was recently widened to five lanes between Arkansas 12 and Arkansas 102. The west entry will give the airport a public face, something it’s never really had. And in a pinch, one of those top executives who fly into Northwest Arkansas can book a landing there.

“We’re two traffic lights from Walmart,” Powell said.