Fort Smith Regional Airport traffic trends lower in May

Fort Smith Regional Airport enplanements reversed course in May with a more than 2% decline, with traffic numbers out of the airport in the first five months of 2026 essentially flat compared with the same period in 2026.

The airport reported 5,437 enplanements in May, well above the 4,487 in April, but 2.35% below the 5,568 in May 2025. In the first five months of 2026, airport enplanements total 23,476, down 0.05% compared with 23,489 in the same period of 2025.

Enplanements at the airport in 2025 totaled 62,369, up 1.56% compared with 61,409 in 2024, and better than the 60,669 enplanements in 2023. Fort Smith enplanements were on a growth trend prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025 tally is down 34.8% compared with 2019 when those traveling out of the airport totaled 95,670. Enplanements fell to 38,660 in 2020.

The last time enplanements topped 100,000 was in 2005 with 102,607. The enplanement record is 112,782 set in 1975.

American Airlines had four to five flights a day in 2021 but has reduced its schedule to around three flights a day to Dallas-Fort Worth. The schedule, as shown on the airport website, shows shows four daily arrivals and three daily departures.

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.

Following are the previous 11 years of Fort Smith enplanement totals.
2025: 62,369
2024: 61,409
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