FAYETTEVILLE -- More travelers are flying out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, board members were told Wednesday.
Traffic was up in June and July by double digits, year-over-year, according to Scott Van Laningham, executive director and CEO. Boardings were up 14.5 percent in June over last year and 21.7 percent in July.
"We haven't seen numbers like this since 2004 or 2005," Van Laningham said.
The increase in travel is probably because of more discretionary spending for personal travel as the recession fades, the airlines adding capacity with bigger airplanes and some airlines scheduling more flights for summer travel, according to Van Laningham and Kelly Johnson, airport director. The numbers could drop in the fall as vacation travel tapers off.
As a result, revenue is up about $200,000 from the same time last year, Van Laningham said.
Paradies, the airport concessionaire, sold $619,401 worth of alcoholic drinks in the last 12 months. That figure could grow as Paradies was given the go-ahead Wednesday to seek a restaurant mixed drink permit to replace an antiquated private club permit. Combined food and drink sales were about $4.3 million in the past 12 months.
An environmental study for the proposed airport access road is almost done. A bat expert has found colonies of the flying mammals living in the area, but there should be few if any problems when road construction starts, Van Laningham said.
A report on the findings is expected in a couple of weeks. It could recommend protecting the bats with netting and limited construction work at night during the bats' mating season so they are not disturbed.
Airport officials are going ahead with required construction work even though they don't yet know when they will get federal permission to build the road. The project got caught up in a federally mandated study of endangered species in the Cave Springs drainage area even though the proposed path of the road is not within the drainage area. That study is still under way.
"All things considered, it's no change, but it's moving in the right direction," Van Laningham said.
In the meantime, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department is expecting to put the first phase of the U.S. 412 Bypass around Springdale, from U.S. 412 to Arkansas 112, out for bids in November.
"It'll get us right where we need to be," Van Laningham said.
The airport access road is expected to take off from the section of the U.S. 412 Bypass close to Arkansas 112 and loop around the west side of Cave Springs to reach the airport.
NW News on 08/28/2014