Compared with recent years, passengers are flocking to the state's largest airport in 2016.
Nearly 186,000 passengers went through Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field last month, a number more than 5.5 percent higher than the same month in 2015. Through the first five months of this year, the number of passengers was up 3.22 percent, to 780,395 from 756,032 in 2015.
"I think the people of Little Rock are going to be very excited to hear about the increase in May and the 3.2 percent year to date," said Kathy Webb, the Little Rock Board of Directors' liaison to the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.
If the numbers hold up for the rest of 2016, it would be the first annual increase in four years.
For that to happen, the airport must count on travelers like Beckie Jones of Bryant. Jones said she rarely flies but is planning a trip by air to Maine in August.
She was at the airport Tuesday to sign up for the Transportation Security Administration's PreCheck program, which provides expedited passenger security checks for enrollees. The cost to enroll is $85 for five years.
Worries about long lines at airports around the nation, driven by projections that 231 million passengers will fly on major U.S. airlines this summer -- an all-time high -- helped PreCheck enrollment at Clinton National surge to more than 850 last month, a figure that was 2.5 times more than the previous month.
Jones made an appointment to sign up for the program at the airport to minimize the hassle of catching a flight.
"You hate taking your shoes off and then emptying all your bags," she said.
With the exception of 2012, passenger traffic at Clinton National declined every year since 2006, when 1̶,̶2̶7̶5̶,̶0̶5̶5̶ 2,543,091* passengers went through the airport.
Airport Commission Chairman Virgil Miller Jr., who has been on the commission for more than nine years, said the turnaround was the product of years of work by T.J. Williams, the air-service development director, and other staff members.
"They're amazing figures," Miller said Tuesday at the commission's regular monthly meeting. "You took a lot of heat when the numbers were going the other way. We need to give you praise when the numbers are going the other way."
The decline in passenger traffic at Clinton National came in the midst of an economic recession and as a wave of consolidations buffeted the airline industry. Where once nine major airlines served Clinton National, only four do now, in addition to two low-cost carriers and charter flights.
"You have consolidation and with consolidation, there is reductions," said Ron Mathieu, the airport's executive director. "That is ultimately how they save money."
Southwest Airlines also shifted its focus away from Clinton National with the expiration of the so-called Wright Amendment, a federal law that required the airline to have a stop in a state that borders Texas. But when Southwest dropped flights at Clinton National to Chicago and to Baltimore, airport officials persuaded the airline to re-start flights to St. Louis, where passengers can still connect to Chicago and Baltimore.
"We're taking lemons and making lemonade," Miller said. "Working through that was not an easy thing."
Mathieu said offering PreCheck sign-up at the airport -- it used to be off airport grounds -- and upgraded passenger security checkpoints also helped.
"I'd like to believe that all of those combined with the fact that we've got different offerings for our customers," he said. "We've got the Allegiant [Air] flight that's back. It's going to Florida. It's going to LAX. We have GLO [Airlines]. It's going to New Orleans. They're doing well. The St. Louis flight is doing better combined in terms of passengers than Chicago and Baltimore."
In addition, other airlines have responded, if not with new destinations then additional flights to destinations they already serve or switching out smaller aircraft to bigger ones to meet demand.
"We're seeing the results," Mathieu said. "And I think the national economy is doing better as well."
The increase in passengers also might reflect well on the local economy. "We have to have the demand here in order to have more flights," said Shane Carter, the airport spokesman.
The uptick in passengers comes as the airport embarks on a new project to renovate the 12-gate passenger concourse. In addition to replacing the flooring, walls and ceiling finishes, the project includes replacing five passenger boarding bridges and about 800 seats with ones that have their own outlets to charge personal electronic devices. Together, the work will cost an estimated $11.3 million.
The increased passenger traffic also is reflected in the airport's bottom line. Total net operating income through May is $5.6 million, or 36 percent more than the $4.1 million the airport collected through the same period in 2015.
Webb called all the numbers and the projects "incredibly impressive."
Metro on 06/22/2016
*CORRECTION: A total of 2,543,091 passengers departed and arrived at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in 2006. This article contained an incorrect total for that year.