Fort Smith airport passenger traffic up 3.4% through July

Fort Smith Regional Airport enplanements between January and July totaled 35,636, up 3.4% compared with traffic in the same period of 2023. However, July traffic was down more than 8% compared with July 2023.

“The numbers are consistent. Obviously, we would like it to be more, … but we’re trending in the right direction,” said Airport Director Michael Griffin.

July enplanements totaled 5,766, down 8.4% compared with 6,294 in July 2023. The airport had 60,669 enplanements in 2023, down 1.7% compared with 2022. The decline followed two years of gains after 2020 in which the COVID-19 pandemic saw annual traffic fall to 38,660 enplanements.

American Airlines, the only carrier active at Fort Smith, had four to five flights a day in 2021 but has reduced its schedule to three flights a day. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines stopped its direct service to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in July 2020.

The airport received a $1.145 million grant in August 2022 from the Small Community Air Service Development Program of the Federal Aviation Administration to recruit a route to Chicago or another northeastern market. The grant is good for 10 years. The airport contracted with Middleton, Wisc.-based Mead & Hunt to help recruit more flights and add new markets.

Griffin said he continues to work with airport consultants to add more airlines and more routes, but “it’s still a difficult environment,” especially with pilot shortages.

“The industry in general is scaling back. Unfortunately, it’s (struggles to expand service) not just a Fort Smith problem, it affects all of us, all airports,” he said.

Airlines for America, a trade group for the airlines, reported Aug. 8 an 8.4% increase in the number of pilots so far in 2024 compared with 2023, but an 18% decline in the number of pilots for regional air routes. The report also noted 63% fewer regional aircraft in the system since 2019.

From January to June, enplanements at the Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) rose by 11% to 525,325 from 473,154 in the same period last year. In 2023, enplanements rose to a record of 991,489, exceeding the previous high of 922,533 in 2019. For the state’s largest airport, Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, from January to June enplanements rose by 6.37% to 559,716 from 526,221.

Fort Smith enplanements were on a growth trend prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last time enplanements topped 100,000 was in 2005 with 102,607. The enplanement record is 112,782 set in 1975. Following are the previous 10 years of Fort Smith enplanement totals.
2023: 60,669
2022: 61,719
2021: 47,287
2020: 38,660
2019: 95,670
2018: 90,501
2017: 89,582
2016: 87,488
2015: 86,704
2014: 92,869