Passenger traffic at the state’s largest airport is projected to grow over the next 20 years but not at a rate that would require expanding the terminal anytime soon.
The aviation consulting firm Leigh/Fisher said its most likely scenario sees Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field growing from 997,085 boardings in 2016 to just more than 1.3 million boardings by 2036, a 1.4 per- cent annual growth rate.
From 2006 to 2016, the airport’s annual growth rate was -2.4 percent. Last year was the first time since 2012 that the airport recorded a positive growth rate in annual boardings, increasing less than 0.50 percent.
“I’d like to see the number bigger,” Ron Mathieu, the airport’s executive director, said of the forecast. “But at the end of the day, based on the data that they presented, it is a conservative number. I wish it was 10 [percent] or 12 percent, but we have to deal with it. They are the experts.”
The number of boardings equates to airport passenger revenue. Each ticket purchased for a flight out of Little Rock has a $4.50 passenger facility charge, a mandated federal fee that is returned to the airport to help pay for aviation-related improvements.
Based on last year’s boardings, Clinton National will receive more than $4 million. The airport doesn’t receive the full amount because a small portion is kept by the airlines as an administrative fee. The airport, which is self-supporting, also earns income from concessions, parking, vehicle rentals, landing fees, and leasing land and buildings on airport property.
The Federal Aviation Administration also uses the forecast to determine how much airport improvement program money to which Clinton National is entitled and to confirm improvements the airport proposes are appropriate.
“It’s important we get it right,” Mathieu said.