359 replies to this topic

[mcheiss]

I thought this would be a great way to tell everyone about the growing airport up here in Northwest Arkansas.

I'll start this topic off with some progressing development at XNA.

Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport officials are planning a cargo facility up to 30,000 square feet to be opened by the end of 2006. A taxi-way for the cargo facility was recently completed as well.

Right now, we don't have any cargo facilities, which means that all people shipping items have to go through the main terminal to process cargo. It really backs up lines at the airport, so hopefully this will help minimize waiting time.

[Mith242]

Now I can finally respond after uploading and posting so many pics recently.  Yes XNA has been doing very well and bucked the trend after 9/11 after so many other airports were down for a while.  I guess the one thing holding it back somewhat is that this is still not a large metro yet.  That and it still focuses a lot on business and not recreational trips.  Although I think more people are starting to use it for their vacations and such.  I'm curious where you think our next direct flight might be?

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Nov 5 2005, 07:35 AM, said:

Now I can finally respond after uploading and posting so many pics recently.  Yes XNA has been doing very well and bucked the trend after 9/11 after so many other airports were down for a while.  I guess the one thing holding it back somewhat is that this is still not a large metro yet.  That and it still focuses a lot on business and not recreational trips.  Although I think more people are starting to use it for their vacations and such.  I'm curious where you think our next direct flight might be?

I think our next direct (nonstop) flight will be to Las Vegas or Phoenix. I support these cities, because the new merger between US Airways and America West will create the world's largest low fare airline, with hub cities in Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Phoenix, with focus cities in Las Vegas, and Pittsburg. We do currently have U.S. Airways, and since Las Vegas is such a tourist attraction, I think it will come in a certain number of years. Phoenix, since it will be the gateway for the west, is in the top 10 busiest airports in the nation.

Some rather unfortunate news at XNA.

Northwest Airlines has dropped a number of flights from the airport because of "budget issues". The fight cuts go as issued:

From 3 flights daily to Memphis on DC-9 3, to 2 flights daily on CRJ-100.

From 3 flights daily to Minneapolis on CRJ-100, to 1 flight daily on CRJ-100.

From 3 flights daily to Detroit on CRJ-100, to 1 flight dailiy on CRJ-100.

These flights always did above average on attendance. I guess the airline has been having some budget issues and had to cut flights that didn't have the best attendance. Hopefully, we can regain some of these flights back in the future.

[Mith242]

This may be a trend even if flights are doing decently well at XNA.  With fuel prices the way they are airlines are having financial problems and might have to cut back where they can.

[mcheiss]

What cities or airlines do you want to see added to XNA?

[Aporkalypse]

mcheiss, on Nov 5 2005, 12:09 PM, said:

What cities or airlines do you want to see added to XNA?

Getting Southwest or even Air Tran would be a huge step but they haven't been interested thus far which is surprising as Southwest's regional flights to similar airports like Lubbock, Amarillo, College Station, Midland-Odessa, El Paso, etc is their bread and butter.

[mcheiss]

Aporkalypse, on Nov 5 2005, 12:13 PM, said:

Getting Southwest or even Air Tran would be a huge step but they haven't been interested thus far which is surprising as Southwest's regional flights to similar airports like Lubbock, Amarillo, College Station, Midland-Odessa, El Paso, etc is their bread and butter.

Airtran would be good with their flights to Atlanta.

I'm pretty sure they are opening Dallas as a hub, which would open up the west market.

[Aporkalypse]

mcheiss, on Nov 5 2005, 12:17 PM, said:

Airtran would be good with their flights to Atlanta.

I'm pretty sure they are opening Dallas as a hub, which would open up the west market.

Air Tran is coming to DFW as a hub.  They also entered into a sharing agreement with SWA recently in an effort to piggyback.  Air Tran narrowly averted a 2nd bankruptcy recently but has the youngest fleet in the area.

Jet Blue would be nice but NWA is not in their region and isn't their kind of focus market.  They are doing very well by undercutting all of the major East Coast routes, especially that $99 NY or Boston to Miami flight.

[mcheiss]

Aporkalypse, on Nov 5 2005, 12:20 PM, said:

Air Tran is coming to DFW as a hub.  They also entered into a sharing agreement with SWA recently in an effort to piggyback.  Air Tran narrowly averted a 2nd bankruptcy recently but has the youngest fleet in the area.

Jet Blue would be nice but NWA is not in their region and isn't their kind of focus market.  They are doing very well by undercutting all of the major East Coast routes, especially that $99 NY or Boston to Miami flight.

JetBlue only has fights to JFK in New York. We do get some business travelers from the East Coast, but I don't think it would be very well supported. JetBlue is my favorite low-fare airline because of the free direct t.v. in every seat, and choice of 5 premium snacks!!

Independance Air would be another low-fare airline that wouldn't get a lot of support. Their only hub is in Washington D.C.

Hopefully some of these east coast low fare airlines expand into the midwest and west.

[mcheiss]

Passenger Numbers at XNA came in today.

For Total Paid Emplaments, the total amount was 48,088, up from last year's 45,467.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 9 2005, 01:39 PM, said:

Passenger Numbers at XNA came in today.

For Total Paid Emplaments, the total amount was 48,088, up from last year's 45,467.

These aren't yearly totals are they?

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Nov 9 2005, 02:53 PM, said:

These aren't yearly totals are they?

No Way!!!

This is the total from only the month of october.

So far through the year, XNA has had 467,234 paid emplaments.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 9 2005, 02:57 PM, said:

No Way!!!

This is the total from only the month of october.

So far through the year, XNA has had 467,234 paid emplaments.

That's what I was hoping.  I admit I wasn't positive on the numbers but I thought we were doing a lot better than that.  Just out of curiousity any idea what the busiest month or time of year is for XNA?

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Nov 9 2005, 03:03 PM, said:

That's what I was hoping.  I admit I wasn't positive on the numbers but I thought we were doing a lot better than that.  Just out of curiousity any idea what the busiest month or time of year is for XNA?

June is usually the busiest month.

In fact this June, we had around 56,000 paid emplaments, which is the current record now at XNA.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 9 2005, 03:06 PM, said:

June is usually the busiest month.

In fact this June, we had around 56,000 paid emplaments, which is the current record now at XNA.

It is nice to see that the airport is being used more than just for business trips.  Any predictions what we'll have by the end of the year?

[mcheiss]

If I'd guess, I'd have to say around 530,000-550,000.

I can't wait until the second baggage claim is finished in the airport. It should be done sometime next spring or so.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 9 2005, 03:19 PM, said:

If I'd guess, I'd have to say around 530,000-550,000.

I can't wait until the second baggage claim is finished in the airport. It should be done sometime next spring or so.

Since you seem to be so good with all of these airport figures, can you compare numbers at XNA to other airports in cities in this region?

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Nov 9 2005, 04:51 PM, said:

Since you seem to be so good with all of these airport figures, can you compare numbers at XNA to other airports in cities in this region?

Tulsa averages around 1.5 Million Emplaments.
Oklahoma City is around 1.7-1.8 Million Emplaments.
Fort Smith is may'be around 90,000 Emplaments.
Little Rock is getting around 1.3 Million or so.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 10 2005, 01:20 PM, said:

Tulsa averages around 1.5 Million Emplaments.
Oklahoma City is around 1.7-1.8 Million Emplaments.
Fort Smith is may'be around 90,000 Emplaments.
Little Rock is getting around 1.3 Million or so.

I didn't realize Little Rock was that close to Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  Of course it will be quite a while before XNA can even think of getting numbers anywhere near those.

[mcheiss]

Mith242, on Nov 10 2005, 02:26 PM, said:

I didn't realize Little Rock was that close to Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  Of course it will be quite a while before XNA can even think of getting numbers anywhere near those.

Low-fare makes Little Rock have such high numbers. And the fact that Memphis is the only airport near Little Rock.

About 40% or so of their emplament numbers are off of Southwest or Frontier Airlines alone.

XNA's numbers will be sky rocketing whenever low fare comes to the airport. If I had my guess, by 2007 or 2008, we should have a low-fare airline.