"Confusion over Arkansas airport location annoys officials"

Thursday, August 21, 2003
 
Confusion over airport location annoys officials
BY ROBERT J. SMITH
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette


Contract negotiations next month with airlines renting space at the
Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport will center on money, but airport
officials also plan a cost-free plea. 

Stop telling passengers the airport is in Fayetteville. 

It's in Highfill, a Benton County town that's far closer to Bentonville than
it is Fayetteville, airport president and chief executive officer Scott Van
Laningham said he has told the airlines more than a time or two. "It started
out as a minor annoyance, but it's gotten more annoying," Van Laningham
said. "We've asked them to say Northwest Arkansas Regional." 

Once upon a time Drake Field in Fayetteville was where passengers boarded
commercial flights from Northwest Arkansas, but that was way back in the
last century. 

The regional airport opened in November 1998, and the airlines had all moved
to the regional airport by 1999. 

Contracts for the five airlines that serve the regional airport expire Sept.
30. Negotiations to renew the contracts will be about airplane landing fees
and money paid by the airlines to rent such things as ticket counters, gates
and baggage areas. 

And that little "Fayetteville" issue. 

Most everyone has figured out that the regional airport isn't in
Fayetteville, said Sugar Huddleston, a travel agent with Worldwide Travel
whose office is located on the University of Arkansas campus in
Fayetteville. 

Huddleston said the airlines welcome arriving passengers to Northwest
Arkansas Regional Airport, not Fayetteville. It's the travel reservation
systems and airline Web sites that still list Fayetteville as the location.
"It's never an issue 97 percent of the time, but there's that 3 percent that
probably still doesn't know where the mall is," Huddleston said. "I mean,
what's it called? The Northwest Arkansas Mall." 

Van Laningham also thinks most people know by now where the regional airport
is, but airline Web sites where tickets may be purchased are far from clear.


That can spell trouble for people unfamiliar with the area. "We've had folks
from Missouri drive to Drake Field, drive right past our airport and miss
their flight," Van Laningham said. 

Four of the five airlines mention Fayetteville on their Web sites and use
the word at least sometimes in dealings with passengers. 

Continental Airlines, which offers flights to Houston and Newark, N. J., on
its regional carrier, Continental Express, calls it "Fayetteville, AR" on
the Web site. Delta Airlines provides flights from "Fayetteville-NW Reg,
AR." 

Northwest Airlines flights to Memphis "depart Fayetteville (XNA)." 

The American Airlines' Web site mentions Fayetteville and XNA. 

It's even possible to book an American flight from the regional airport by
typing in FYV, the airport code that represents Drake Field. 

Typing in the regional airport's code, XNA, works, too. 

Todd Burke, an American Airlines spokesman, said Tuesday he makes "a
concerted effort to say XNA and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport." 

Only U.S. Airways, which flies from the regional airport to Charlotte, N.
C., avoids using "Fayetteville" on its Web site. It's just "Northwest
Arkansas (XNA)." 

Ray Boudreaux, the aviation and economic development director at Drake
Field, greets someone about once a day who has driven to the Fayetteville
airport to catch a flight from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
Boudreaux provides a map from Drake Field to Highfill, 25 miles north. "We
still hand the map out in great volume, and we're very apologetic,"
Boudreaux said. "I feel sorry for the passengers."


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