Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Clinton National departures increase
Airlines operating from state’s largest airport are scheduled to nearly double the number of departing flights next month as passenger traffic continues to rise, but the airport’s top executive said passenger traffic won’t return to near pre-pandemic levels for at least two years.
The airlines will have 23 daily departures on the board in July at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock. That figure is up from the dozen and sometimes 13 daily departures the airport has now.
Clinton National enjoyed 42 daily departures in February before airline travel evaporated as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States.
The airport has seen about 790 passengers depart daily during the first two weeks in June as it and other U.S. airports emerge from the worst of the pandemic. On one day, two months ago, only 186 passengers departed Clinton National. The 790 daily departures number is only 22% of the passenger departures the airport had last year.
The U.S. Department of
Transportation recorded 534,528 passengers going through its security checkpoints at U.S. airports on Monday, the fifth time in four days the total ended above 500,000. On the same day a year ago, slightly fewer than 2.7 million passengers went through the security checkpoints.
It will take years before airline travel booms again,
Bryan Malinowski, Clinton National’s executive director, said Tuesday, based on discussions he has held with airline executives and airport officials around the nation. He spoke at the monthly meeting of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, which met virtually.
“I think we’re going to see recovery, but I don’t think we
will be ultimately to that 100 percent,” Malinowski said. “My best estimation would be 75 to 80 percent over a twoyear period.
He had two takeaways from a recent virtual meeting with executives from the six airlines operating at Clinton National: Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
“Point number one was they felt it was going to be two years or more before they see the recovery levels something similar to levels to pre-pandemic,” Malinowski said. “But they were also quick to say that when they emerge [from the pandemic], they were all going to emerge smaller companies, perhaps around 75 to 80 percent of where they were.”
Responding to a question from commission member Stacy Hurst, he acknowledged that Clinton National might be better positioned than other airports if reports that business travel isn’t expected to recover quickly. Before the pandemic, about 65% of passenger traffic at the airport was leisure.
“In discussions with our colleagues at other airports we’re actually seeing the traffic at leisure airports such as ours rebounding a little bit faster than the business markets,” Malinowski said. “I shared with the commission earlier that we were at 22 percent. At other airports, I’m seeing anywhere from 15 to 18 to 20 percent. So we’re a little bit better off.”
Rachel Bader, an air service development manager, ticked off the additional airline service to expect in July.
■ Delta will increase from two to three daily non-stop flights to Atlanta.
■ Southwest’s schedule will increase from three to four daily non-stop flights to St. Louis and Dallas.
■ American Airlines will increase from five to 12 daily non-stop flights providing service to Washington D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Charlotte, N.C.
■ United will increase from two to four daily non-stop flights to Houston and Chicago.
“This will bring non-stop daily departures up to 23, which is a little over half way to our pre-covid departures of 42,” Bader said. “That’s all good news.”
Allegiant already resumed seasonal service last month, providing weekly service to Orlando, Destin, Fla., and Los Angeles, she said. Also Southwest said it will start non-stop service between Little Rock and Denver on Dec. 15.
Commission chairman Gus Vratsinas struck an optimistic note.
“I know we’re at 65 percent leisure so maybe some of this will come to fruition sooner than later, which is our hope and our desire,” he said. ” I’m encouraged by the numbers the first two weeks in June — 22 percent. I remember our low was 6 percent.”