Northwest Arkansas National Airport is in
Northwest Arkansas
Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Mountains. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, the surrounding towns of Benton an ...
in
Highfill, Arkansas
Highfill is a town in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 583 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Northwest Arkansas National Airport, which serves all of the Northwest Arkansas region.
Geography
Highfill is located in w ...
, United States, northwest of
Fayetteville and northwest of
Springdale. It is often referred to by its IATA code, which is incorporated in the airport's logo as "Fly XNA".
It sees year-round, daily nonstop jets to major cities such as
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Dallas/Fort Worth,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
Minneapolis/St. Paul,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and
Washington D.C.
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Much of its business is attributable to the presence of the world's largest company by revenue,
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
, in nearby Bentonville. It is also frequently used by
athletic teams at the
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
traveling to away games and Razorback opponents visiting Fayetteville.
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
records say the airport had 547,871 passenger boardings (enplanements) in
calendar year
Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any o ...
2008, 530,087 in 2009 and 549,195 in 2010. It is included in the
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA)
National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...
for 2019–2023, in which it is
categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.
History
XNA opened in November 1998. It replaced Fayetteville's
Drake Field
Drake Field is a public airport three miles south of Fayetteville, in Washington County, Arkansas. It is also known as Fayetteville Executive Airport and was formerly Fayetteville Municipal Airport.
Historical airline service
Drake Field w ...
as the region's main airport with scheduled airline passenger flights. By the early 1990s, Drake Field had become too small to accommodate the growing traffic that the expanding region was generating.
Expansion
In 2007, airport officials announced the construction of a new concourse costing between $20 million and $25 million. The new facility, east of the upper concourse, has allowed the airport to increase its number of airplane parking positions from twelve to twenty. Building the new facility took over three years.
The airport completed a ticket counter expansion in 2010. The airport has completed a $21 million expansion to the upper-level concourse that includes the state's first moving walkway. With the walkway, it is anticipated to take about three minutes to get from security to the last gate. The addition adds and twelve upper-level gates to the east side of the airport.
The airport was previously known as Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. It adopted the name Northwest Arkansas National Airport in December 2019. Airport officials attributed the change to perception, saying that the new name would help attract more airline service.
On September 23, 2021, it was announced that Board members took the first steps toward adding a new, second concourse. The board voted to have staff negotiate with Fentress Architects for conceptual drawings for the first phase of Concourse B. The design work will cost about $185,000.The new concourse would allow the airport to use its boarding gates more efficiently. The Board are contemplating bringing some gates on Concourse A back into use for certain aircraft sizes and redesigning others. Phase One would include an elevated walkway, a hold room for passengers and a covered walkway out to a ground-level loading area onto the aircraft. Construction of the project is estimated to cost roughly $35 million to $50 million. Longer range plans call for building out Concourse B to roughly match Concourse A.
Runway
The original runway built in 1998 required complete reconstruction in 2011, following the discovery of
alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in its
Portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...
concrete. Since the runway was the only one at the airport, a temporary runway was necessary to maintain service during reconstruction. Stimulus funds of $9 million ($ million in today's dollars) from the
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...
(ARRA) allowed XNA to accelerate the alternative runway construction project. Upon completion of the alternate runway in 2012, all aircraft operations were shifted to the new surface and demolition and replacement of the primary runway began.
Access Road
A proposed access road connecting the airport with the new Springdale Bypass (
US-412) was part of a ½ cent statewide sales tax continuation amendment. This was passed by voters on November 3, 2020. As of February 10, 2021, three alternatives were brought to public comment with a live meeting scheduled March 2, 2021.
Facilities
![XNA Airport Terminal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/XNA_Airport_Terminal.jpg)
The airport covers 2,184
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
s (884
ha) at an elevation of 1,287 feet (392 m). It has two runways, 16/34 and 17/35. 16/34 is 8,801 feet long by 150 feet (2,683 x 46 m) wide and 17/35 is 8,800 feet long by 150 feet (2,682 x 46 m) wide.
In the year ending May 31, 2021, the airport had 28,440 aircraft operations, average 78 per day: 45% airline, 9%
air taxi
An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand.
In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...
, 30% military, and 15%
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
. In May 2021, eight aircraft were based at the airport: one single-engine, three multi-engine, and four jet.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Statistics
Top destinations
Annual traffic
See also
*
List of airports in Arkansas
This is a list of airports in Arkansas (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that ...
References
External links
*
*
Northwest Arkansas Regional (XNA)at the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics
Aerial imagefrom
USGS
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
''
The National Map
''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...
''
*
*
{{Springdale, Arkansas
Airports in Arkansas
Transportation in Benton County, Arkansas
Buildings and structures in Benton County, Arkansas
Bentonville, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Rogers, Arkansas
Springdale, Arkansas