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Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA)


mcheiss

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The concorse B expansion will not happen for another 10 years or so, because of the number of flights at XNA. Concorse A still has empty gates that no airline is using, so until all gates are occupied in A there is no need for the west side to be the as the east... All though it would be nice. Allegiant has been testing flights from XNA to Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa for a while to see if there is demand for that flight, which there is. But they have not decided whether or not if they should want if should be a seasonal route or year round. With all this tremendous growth happening, I would not be surprised at all if a new airline annocuned its highly awaited arrival to XNA.

When have they tested them, I've never seen it mentioned till now, they they actually flown them?.  When you say Tampa, it's not Tampa International but PIE which is St. Pete-Clearwater, which is fine. Quite Honestly, I think a New Orleans Allegaint route has promise.

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I'm not sure why the Branson airport is trying so hard.  If the flights they've had have come and gone, what more are you going to do?  Are that many people from around the country really trying hard to get to Branson?

 

As far as XNA, I don't see the need for expansion in the next few years.  Yes, they need a master plan if growth levels do sustain, but they don't need to physically start it yet.  I live about 15 minutes from XNA and will drive out occasionally on nice days on the weekends.  Not unusual to see every gate empty. 

 

They have tested those flights out randomly whithin the last year or so, they never actually publicly announce when they will test, which seems odd to me. The only I know this because I have close relations with XNA.

Doesn't seem like a smart way to test.  Most people don't plan vacations on a whim with no notice.

Edited by jb1087
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I'm not sure why the Branson airport is trying so hard.  If the flights they've had have come and gone, what more are you going to do?  Are that many people from around the country really trying hard to get to Branson?

 

As far as XNA, I don't see the need for expansion in the next few years.  Yes, they need a master plan if growth levels do sustain, but they don't need to physically start it yet.  I live about 15 minutes from XNA and will drive out occasionally on nice days on the weekends.  Not unusual to see every gate empty. 

 

Doesn't seem like a smart way to test.  Most people don't plan vacations on a whim with no notice

Supposedly the load factors on the Southwest and Frontier flights were fairly respectable and growing, it's just that Frontier and Southwest were undergoing structural change. Since it's a private airport that depends on folks coming and going and the stipend they get from Taney County for doing so, they have to offer flights out of there. Since they started their own thing, they have actually increased the frequencies and seasons of the Chicago and Houston Hobby flights and it's led to they going out and doing these other routes. They say it's to show there's a market to attract commercial airlines but that is a pool that getting smaller and smaller unless we see sustained lower fuel prices.  It will be interesting on what all the big boys do with the smaller RJs they are retiring from their fleets. Maybe they go out on their own and start their own instead of hiring charters to service these routes. Find out who owns the rights to Ozark Air and snag it. I will say, there's a pretty good back and forth market to Florida as evident with the amount of Allegiant service to the Sunshine St. from Springfield, to put that into perspective, the last I looked when Allegiant bumps XNA to 3 times weekly, they get 4X plus they already have the PIE route, I think they are knocking the Punta Gorda route to seasonal or got rid of it all together from Springfield.

 

Tell you the truth, I wonder why Allegiant hasn't pursued a terminal at the Galveston airport with it being the fourth largest cruise terminal.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Continued great passenger numbers for XNA.  May saw the highest load factor and passenger count in one month since the government has kept records on XNA since 2002.  Growth from June '14 to May '15 is 12% over previous year.

Edited by jb1087
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Continued great passenger numbers for XNA.  May saw the highest load factor and passenger count in one month since the government has kept records on XNA since 2002.  Growth from June '14 to May '15 is 12% over previous year.

Yeah, we're booming again.  Home sales numbers for Benton County continue to lead all counties in the state.  

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Wow that's exciting! It looks like the flight will depart early in the morning and come in late at night.

I'm cautiously optimistic on how long it will last.  Just a feeling, but I don't think UA has that big of a following at XNA.  I'd rather Delta have added back its flight to SLC to help with west coast connections.

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I'm cautiously optimistic on how long it will last.  Just a feeling, but I don't think UA has that big of a following at XNA.  I'd rather Delta have added back its flight to SLC to help with west coast connections.

I'm feeling very similar about it as well. I know SFO is one of the top final destination for travelers at XNA. Number one being Boston. I wouldn't be surprised at all if SLC resumes flights sooner rather than later, along with Miami. Time will tell.

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Enplanements have dropped from last year the past three months after a big increase last year. The planes out of XNA have grown in size on many routes. I figure much lower gas has helped the decline, as flight costs haven't dropped with the jet fuel prices. I also wonder how the flights over in Branson are doing with their flights to New Orleans/Cancun and Austin along with the others via those scheduled charters. Seems Allegiant is charging more out of XNA for comparible flights out of Tulsa, LR, and Springfield. Seems you get a really good price for one direction but the logical return flight dates are nearly 35 percent more or higher. I 5hink XNA growth is going to level off with slight growth as the area grows but folks will continue to go elsewhere like Tulsa to fly until an LLC with more than twice weekly flights sets up shop.

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Enplanements have dropped from last year the past three months after a big increase last year. The planes out of XNA have grown in size on many routes. I figure much lower gas has helped the decline, as flight costs haven't dropped with the jet fuel prices. I also wonder how the flights over in Branson are doing with their flights to New Orleans/Cancun and Austin along with the others via those scheduled charters. Seems Allegiant is charging more out of XNA for comparible flights out of Tulsa, LR, and Springfield. Seems you get a really good price for one direction but the logical return flight dates are nearly 35 percent more or higher. I 5hink XNA growth is going to level off with slight growth as the area grows but folks will continue to go elsewhere like Tulsa to fly until an LLC with more than twice weekly flights sets up shop.

Echo the part about fares.  I'm flying out of Tulsa in a few weeks because of better connections and several hundred dollar savings per ticket on a trip to California.  I really wish I could've used XNA, as I live about 10 minutes away, but the combination of a much better connection and significant cost-savings made me decide to go to Tulsa.  I don't know that I'd personally ever go to a further airport (LR, Springfield, etc) as the drive times would start to offset some of the higher fares.  People mention Southwest quite a bit, but depending upon the airport, they can be just as expensive as the legacy carriers if they can get away with it.  It's their every-so-often sales that are more attractive than everyday pricing. 

Edited by jb1087
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  • 3 weeks later...

Passenger data for June was released.  From July '14 - June '15 XNA was up 7.8% in passengers, scheduled flights were down 7.64%.  Load factor (how full flights are) leaving and arriving, was 85% and 82% for the month, both up from last June by several hundred basis points.  

Just throwing in FSM.  Passengers up 5.8%, flights down 2.9%, and load factors at 89% and 86%, leaving and arriving.

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Still having naming consistency issues with the airport...waiting from a flight from Minneapolis back to XNA, the flight displays called it Northwest Arkansas.  The person manning the gate called it Fayetteville.  The tag they put on my gate checked bag was marked XNA--Highfill.

Fare of course are still outrageous, only flew XNA cause I used miles this time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Delta appears to have added a nonstop to LaGuardia starting in April to the booking engine.

That would give all three major carriers a nonstop to NYC area

I dream of getting rich, starting or buying a scheduled charter outfit, grabbing some refurbed smaller passenger plane lime a beech 1900D and start running a NWA to New Orleans To St. Louis triangle route on several days a week. Market it as a shuttle for cruises and weekend getaways and pull an Allegiant and do to travel agent aspect to it.  Later on if I somehow haven't failed spectacularly, a XNA/Memphis/Nashville and reverse run. Might operate that out of  Branson, and do Branson/Mem/Knoxville and call it the Silver Dollar Dolly run

I'd aquire rights to the old Ozark Airlines name or pull what the Memphis outfit did with the old Southern Airways name and tack express to it and call it Ozark Air Express. Or just RazorAir.

Enough with my flights of fantasy.

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