LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It was an exciting day at the Little Rock Airport as travelers now have more options to fly to their favorite destinations.
The newest daily flight to New York City took off on Tuesday morning. Now, there are two airlines that offer nonstop flights to the big apple.
“This is a huge deal to have two carriers now providing those options for passengers,” said Shane Carter with the airport.
The airport told us that New York is in their top 10 destinations that people in Little Rock look for flights to. They also explained that they're constantly working with their Air Service Development consultant to see what routes are still needed in the growing Capital City.
Carter said that working to get more destinations for the summer is definitely top of mind
“We’re competing against every commercial service airport in the country for additional destinations," he added. “You're going to see additional beach locations come back into our schedule for the summer, Los Angeles will also be back in addition to some Florida destinations, and then some additional frequencies to some favorite spots across the country."
According to Carter, the airport contributes more than $1.7 billion to the economy in Central Arkansas. They're hoping these additional destinations will add to that, especially as they continue to bounce back from the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
“As we were coming out of covid, it was all about restoring frequencies, or the number of flights a day to a particular destination. Now, airlines are adding new destinations. And that's really a reflection of our city,” he said. “We're continuing to see more passengers traveling we're up 17% for the year.”
Not only have they been more focused on flights, but on upgrades too.
“We're looking to make big changes to our terminal over the next several years and certainly with more passengers coming back into the airport, that gives us an even greater look at what we need to be doing,” said Carter.
They're also going to be building a central utility plant, from there they'll move into baggage claim upgrades and possibly a replacement concourse.
This is going to take several years but the airport commission is already getting started with a terminal redevelopment workshop planned for later this week to discuss all that needs to be done.