After years of being just outside the group, Northwest Arkansas National Airport can now stake its claim as one of the nation’s Top 100 airports.
Data from the Federal Aviation Administration published this month shows XNA in 2019 ranked No. 99 with 891,237 paying passengers. There were another 31,000 who didn’t pay to fly. Its number of passengers grew by 17.4%, the FAA reported.
XNA was No. 106 in last year’s ranking. In 2010, it ranked No. 112.
Just one airport larger than XNA — Sarasota Bradenton International Airport — saw passengers increase at a faster rate than XNA last year. The Florida airport’s 42% growth was fueled by new service announcements by multiple airlines.
Nothing changed at the top of the annual FAA rankings with the Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver holding the Top 5 spots.
XNA, which saw new service announcements by Allegiant, American and Frontier in 2019 lead to its growth in passengers, had nonstop flights to most Top 10 airports. The exceptions were No. 6 New York JFK, No. 8 Seattle-Tacoma and No. 10 Orlando International.
In Orlando and New York, XNA had nonstop service to other airports in those markets. Seattle remains the biggest U.S. market that’s never had nonstop service from XNA.
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock ranked No. 95 with about 195,000 more travelers last year than XNA.
Fort Smith Regional Airport sat at No. 248, the FAA reported. It had about 92,000 travelers in 2019.
