HIGHFILL, Ark. — The Terminal Modernization Project at the Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) has been underway for over a year now. On Monday, airport officials offered a guided tour to check in with progress.
"It's clear Northwest Arkansas is growing, and with it, XNA has to grow as well," XNA public affairs manager Olivia Tyler said. "Northwest Arkansas isn't the same Northwest Arkansas that it was in the 1990s. That's clear to everyone. And so we need an airport that is serving the modern Northwest Arkansan."
To meet the demands of a growing population, the airport has added two new baggage carousels that recently opened. They're also touching up paint and expanding and replacing the windows of the existing terminal to keep the natural light.
The terminal is also being expanded by 30 feet to give travelers more space. To help deal with the increased foot traffic, more ways for people to get around are also being added.
"The Terminal Modernization Project is one to increase vertical redundancy with elevators, escalators, and stairwells, and also just to give the airport a little bit of a facelift," Tyler said. "With only one set of escalators in one elevator, with more passengers coming in, we really need to have more just so if one goes down, we always have a backup."
The $34 million expansion will also have a few nods to the region — for those arriving and departing.
"Not only did we want to modernize XNA, but we also wanted to bring Northwest Arkansas into the look and feel of the airport, so that for people who have never been to Northwest Arkansas before can step off the plane and look around and get a feel for Northwest Arkansas," Tyler said.
As this is a construction site within an active airport, airport officials are continuing to ask for patience before things are completely opened
"Our construction team has been extremely diligent in making sure that we can get the progress that we need to get done, while also making sure that passengers can get from their parking spot into the gate as quickly and efficiently," Tyler said. "XNA constantly has construction projects going on. This one is unique because it is in the middle where everybody can see it, where you walk in and you see all of this yellow."
They expect to be fully finished with the project by the third quarter of 2025. They plan to open in phases.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.