HIGHFILL -- Northwest Arkansas National Airport had its busiest year in 2023, coming close to having a million enplanements in its silver anniversary year.
The airport saw 79,110 people catch flights in December, according to airport officials. That brought total enplanements for the year to 991,489.
"The year 2023 set an incredible new high for the airport. Our enplanements beat our best year ever, which was prepandemic 2019, every month of the year," CEO Aaron Burkes said. "We finished the year up 7.5% from the 2019 record numbers, and we were up 18.6% over 2022."
Burkes said the airport finished the year slightly better than forecast due to very strong end-of-year holiday travel.
"That strength appears to be continuing into 2024 where we are seeing record numbers of people through the TSA checkpoint for a January, which is normally one of the slowest months of the year," Burkes said.
