XNA to hit 1.1 million enplanements in 2024, officials say

Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) in Highfill is projected to have about 1.1 million enplanements, or passengers flying out, this year, officials said. If it hits the mark, XNA would have over 100,000 more enplanements than last year.

In XNA’s Board of Directors meeting Tuesday (Sept. 24), CEO Aaron Burkes said 2024 will be “another record year…2023 was a record year. 2024 is going to be a new record year.” Burkes expects XNA to reach 1.1 million enplanements this year.

In August, enplanements rose by 17.7% to 99,964 from 84,904 in the same month last year. Between January and August, enplanements increased by 12.6% to 734,111 from 651,918 in the same period last year. In 2023, XNA had record enplanements of 991,489.

“Excellent year in terms of traffic volume,” Burkes said. “The traffic affects everything that we do here in terms of the dollars, the facilities we need, everything else… Most of our revenue is tied to those enplanements, so we’re having a really strong financial year as well.”

Burkes said XNA has been seeing bigger planes and more flights. On average, the planes are in the mid-80s range of percentage full. XNA recently added three new nonstop routes. Andrew Branch, chief operating officer at XNA, said Delta Air Lines is providing new routes to Salt Lake City and Detroit. American Airlines has established a new route to Philadelphia. XNA has six airlines and 25 nonstop destinations. Burkes noted that most of the routes have daily flights.

Compared to other airports in the region, 72.8% of passengers who live in XNA’s market fly from XNA. However, 10.4% of those in the market fly from Tulsa International Airport, down from 20.2% in 2017. Officials also introduced a new metric that tracks this information using cell phone location data. Using the data, 79.3% of passengers who live in XNA’s market fly from XNA. Only 8.8% fly from Tulsa.

Burkes said the Tulsa metro area is about 77% more populous than Northwest Arkansas, and its airport has about 48% more enplanements than XNA. He said XNA is narrowing the gap in enplanements with Tulsa and XNA is likely capturing more of Tulsa’s market. XNA has also narrowed the average airfare gap with Tulsa, from about $150 more in 2018 to almost $50 more this year.

Burkes also noted that XNA is closing the enplanement gap with Clinton National Airport in Little Rock. So far this year, Clinton National Airport’s enplanements are up 6% compared to XNA’s. Last year, the gap was 13%. It was 21% in 2022 and 38% in 2021.

Also Tuesday, XNA board members approved spending up to an additional $8.5 million on its $34 million terminal renovation project. The extra money will expand the project further into the terminal that was built about 25 years ago. The board also approved a $4.47 million contract with Crossland Construction to add 926 parking spaces to the airport’s existing parking lot.

In other business, XNA plans to file its petition to detach from the City of Highfill after a judge denied the city’s injunction motion last week.