Fort Smith Regional Airport

Facilities and aircraft

Fort Smith Regional Airport covers an area of 1,359 acres (550 ha) at an elevation of 469 feet (143 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways with asphalt surfaces: 7/25, the primary runway, is 8,017 by 150 feet (2,444 x 46 m) with dual instrument landing systems and can accommodate the largest aircraft; 1/19, the crosswind runway, is 5,001 by 150 feet (1,524 x 46 m).

For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2011, the airport had 41,990 aircraft operations, an average of 115 per day: 51% general aviation, 34% military, 11% air taxi, and 4% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 102 aircraft based at this airport: 53% single-engine, 21% military, 16% multi-engine, 10% jet, and 1% helicopter.

Past airline service

Historically, Fort Smith was served by Braniff International Airways and Mid-Continent Airlines with both airlines commencing service to the airport during the 1940s. In 1965, Braniff introduced the first scheduled passenger jet service into the airport with British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twin jets with nonstop flights to Shreveport and Tulsa and direct service to Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Omaha and other destinations. Braniff would later operate Boeing 727-200 jetliners into Fort Smith with direct, no change of plane service to Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City (JFK Airport) and Oklahoma City as well as nonstop 727 flights to Little Rock, Shreveport and Tulsa during the mid 1970s. Braniff began serving Fort Smith during the late 1940s with Douglas DC-3 aircraft flying a daily round trip routing of Denver-Amarillo-Oklahoma City-Tulsa-Muskogee, OK-Fort Smith-Little Rock-Memphis and later operated Convair 340 and Convair 440 propliners into the airport before switching to jets during the mid 1960s. Mid-Continent Airlines began service to Fort Smith in 1946 flying a daily round trip routing of Kansas City-Joplin-Tulsa-Muskogee, OK-Fort Smith-Texarkana-Shreveport-New Orleans with Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Mid-Continent was acquired by and merged into Braniff International in 1952.

During the mid 1970s, the original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) was operating Boeing 737-200 jetliners and Convair 580 turboprops from the airport with nonstop service to Dallas/Ft. Worth. By the late 1970s, Frontier had added Boeing 737-200 jet flights nonstop to Little Rock and Tulsa with direct one stop 737 service to Memphis and Oklahoma City in addition to nonstop 737 jet flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth. During the early 1980s, Frontier was flying nonstop Boeing 737-200 jet service to Atlanta and Wichita. The 737 flights to Wichita also provided one stop direct service to Denver. At this same time, Frontier was continuing to operate nonstop flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth with Convair 580 turboprops. Frontier began serving Fort Smith in 1967 when it acquired Central Airlines which had operated flights from the airport since the mid 1950s. At the time of the merger with Frontier in 1967, Central was providing service from Fort Smith to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Kansas City, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Tulsa and other destinations with Convair 600 turboprops and Douglas DC-3 prop aircraft. Frontier then continued to serve these destinations from Fort Smith. Central began serving the airport during the mid 1950s with Douglas DC-3 flights to Dallas and Fort Worth via Paris, TX; to Tulsa and Oklahoma City via Muskogee, OK; to Kansas City via Fayetteville, AR and Joplin, MO; and to Little Rock via Hot Springs, AR.

Delta Connection operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA, now ExpressJet) flew Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop service nonstop to Dallas/Ft. Worth from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. This service ended when Delta closed its hub operation at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).

Following its acquisition of Republic Airlines (1979-1986) in 1986, Northwest Airlines established a hub in Memphis. By 1989, Northwest Airlink operated by Express Airlines I (now Endeavor Air) was flying nonstop service between Memphis and Fort Smith with British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 and Saab 340 turboprops on behalf of Northwest via a code sharing agreement.

Delta Connection then added a nonstop flight to Atlanta in 2007. With the merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines the service to Atlanta was temporarily discontinued, thus leaving Fort Smith with Delta Connection service only to the Memphis hub. On June 7, 2012, service to Atlanta was restored with a single daily flight. Later that year, Delta then terminated Memphis service on September 5, but kept the same number of flights into Fort Smith by increasing service to Atlanta to three flights a day operated by Delta Connection with Canadair CRJ-200 regional jets.

American Eagle service to Dallas/Ft. Worth was initially operated by Metroflight Airlines, a division of Metro Airlines, with Convair 580 turboprops via a code sharing agreement with American Airlines during the early and mid 1980s. The DFW service operated on behalf of American was then flown with Saab 340 turboprops from the late 1980s to the late 1990s in competition with the Delta Connection service to DFW. American Eagle then operated ATR-72 turboprop aircraft with nonstop service to Dallas/Ft. Worth until the late 2000s when it switched to Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets.

On September 1, 2015 Delta Connection switched to using Canadair CRJ-700 regional jet aircraft featuring first class as well as coach seats. At the same time, flights to Atlanta were reduced from three to two flights per day.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service:

Statistics

Passenger Boardings by Year (from FAA data)