jb1087

AA is adding non-stop to Philly starting in September. PHL-XNA: 3:50pm-5:55pm XNA-PHL: 3:55pm-7:40pm If those times are correct then it looks like the planes are flowing to/from other hubs. Pricing looks to be off, as a round trip in coach is currently going for over $2100 for multiple dates that I checked in September and October.

Looks like we're getting XNA-BNA (Nashville for the non-AvGeeks :)) seasonally on Allegiant twice a week effective in early June. Bit of a surprise to me but you never know with these ULCCs.

Not sure how their fares compare off the top of my head, but I'm sure Frontier would put Allegiant on the outs at XNA if fares were competitive and fly into MCO versus SFB, even at the same schedule as Allegiant. A decent LAS schedule would make Frontier the last one standing of the two. All of that just IMHO.

Oh I know they're not joking. It should be embarrassing for XNA though. On the NYC fare topic. I'm assuming DL is depressing them a bit on XNA-LGA with their vying for some of the traffic against AA. I do doubt that XNA-JFK is in the cards though. At this point it would need to come from DL as AA seems to be prioritizing PHL and CLT for European connections. And I'm assuming DL would not want to take that leap given their shakey footing with XNA-LGA for any traffic. Who really knows though!

I don't know anything personally about the management. I just think there's a huge elephant in the room in that everyone around Northwest Arkansas has joked, or, told the truth, that they will drive to TUL, MCI, SGF, FSM, etc, for better fares. And that has gone on for years. I travel several times per year for leisure and people I work with are shocked that I use XNA for all of it. (I'd much rather spend a bit more to avoid those long drives.) That being said, I don't know that the legacies have any incentive to lower fares much, as they probably make a pretty margin from frequent last minute business trips that are essentially walk-up fares. So landing a Southwest, Spirt, or Frontier may be the only option, with the latter being the most likely I'd guess.

Likewise! I think SLC is a bit of a stretch until their remodel gets done but would love to see DL add it to cut down on times for connections to the west coast.

They down-gauged it to a CRJ last month, which was not a good sign. I believe next month the schedule changes to arrive from CVG around noon and leave about half an hour later.

I know WN used to survive on the one-stops when the full Wright Amendment was in effect, but I don't know how viable they'd be for XNA these days. DAL-XNA-STL would work for a specific aircraft's routing, but I don't see selling that as DAL-STL with a stop as an option that many would bite at, unless it was significantly cheaper than a DAL-STL nonstop. From a leisure and business traveller perspective combined, I do still think WN has the best opportunity when compared to Spirit, Frontier, or further flights from Allegiant, due to their bigger connection opportunities. I don't know that a couple of one-off Spirit or Frontier flights (offering few or no connections) would really dent the existing fares at XNA except maybe to those specific cities.

True enough. I'd think either 1 or 2 would work well given there is a lot open space in the middle of the "corner". I haven't been to the airport in a few months and don't remember every gate "owner", but according to XNA's latest terminal map, both 1 and 3 are without a normally scheduled airline. I'd think AA could consolidate in either 3, 4 and 7 or 1, 2, and 3 and then either 1 and 2 or 4 and 7 would be empty to create a more open seating environment, if two gates really are necessary....otherwise I'd think 1 or 2 could be used independently.

Isn't Gate 1 brand-free? Used to be AA but I believe they moved out. Same for Gate 10. True 1 and 10 wouldn't work for the same airline, but I still can't imagine a new airline coming to XNA that needs more than one dedicated gate, maybe with the exception of WN. Frontier, Spirit, and Alaska should all be able to make it with one.

I know that's been thrown around on this thread multiple times. I just wonder how much space is being wasted by current carriers, mainly AA, which has a ton of flights. They have a regularly scheduled flight (and have for a long while) at 8:00am for DFW and then at 8:30am for DFW. It's one thing to argue that frequency is what business travelers prefer...but that seems a bit much. DL is moving CVG off of "rush-hour" (~5:00pm departure) next month without adding any flight, so that may help a bit in the early evening.

I'm shocked that Ft. Smith is much lower than XNA in terms of fares, given they only have AA and DL...and AA offers ~70% of the seats available. Pretty captive market, although they're decently closer to LIT than XNA is.

Think I'm a few weeks late in posting this since the data was published, but XNA's 2017 growth definitely slowed versus 2016. 12 months ending in December y/o/y traffic only grew 3.2-3.3% (depending if you look at arriving or departing). That's versus ~7% growth in 2016. (Though up against an abysmal ~1.5% in 2015.) Given the various upgauges in capacity (DL in removing CR2s, etc) or added destinations (AA to DCA, etc) with that small of growth number, makes sense that the load factors at XNA were the lowest in 5 years.

Allegiant announced that XNA will be getting twice-weekly seasonal flights to VPS (Destin, FL) starting in June.

I saw articles from the local news channels about it. One was very generic, and the other made it seem like some kind of jet-bridge is being added to the B side, the side that Allegiant uses. Is there another carrier that would be similar in using that space like Allegiant? I would still say the "other" and "nicer" side of the concourse still has open space, with 2 or 3 of the gates sitting empty and gate 12 not even having a jet-bridge attached. Little Rock gets by with 12 gates (next to arguably 13 at XNA if you count Allegiant's parking spot) and with 50% more passengers.