Passenger numbers rise at state airports

At Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/ Adams Field, the number of passengers continued to increase in September but the total remained below the the levels it saw before the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 153,728 passengers went through the state’s largest airport last month, almost double the 77,701 it saw in September 2020. But the total represented a 16% decline from the 183,725 passengers Clinton National saw in September 2019.

Through the first nine months of 2021, the airport saw a total of 1,197,179 passengers, a 66.5% increase over the 719,022 passengers that come through in the same period a year ago.

Northwest Arkansas National Airport at Highfill, the state’s second-largest airport, also continued to see a strong recovery from pandemic lows last year.

It saw 122,063 passengers come and go in September, a 141% jump from the same month in 2020. Through the first nine months of the year, 827,385 passengers have gone through Northwest Arkansas National, a 51.5% increase from the same period last year.