CEO of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill
Aaron Burkes became CEO of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, known as XNA, on Nov. 1.
Burkes, 50, had been a college professor and administrator at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a bank executive, a real estate business owner and a member of the Arkansas Legislature. He earned a bachelor’s degree in natural science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a master’s in economics from Clemson and a law degree from Baylor.
Burkes was recently named to the Transportation Industry Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
You have had a varied professional life. How do those experiences help you run an airport?
I can honestly say that all of my past jobs offer something valuable in the way of relevant experience. My background in construction and real estate development is helpful as we build and manage our facilities. My years of work in finance are proving helpful as we assess the best way to pay for our capital projects. Working in government and law provides experience in navigating the regulatory framework of this highly regulated industry. And finally, my business background is helpful in allocating resources for maximum impact and in leading a team that is focused on the customers’ needs.
XNA just announced Frontier Airlines was adding a Denver-XNA route to its network. The airport has worked for a long time to add a low-cost carrier. How important is this addition?
This is huge for northwest Arkansas. The addition of a second ultra-low-cost carrier allows XNA to capture the price-sensitive leisure travelers who are driving to other airports for lower fares or choosing not to fly at all. Leisure travelers can now tap into the extensive network of Frontier flights from Denver. Many routes will now be very affordable for the leisure traveler. Getting our enplanement numbers up puts us on the radar for other carriers as well.
Seventy percent of XNA travelers are business travelers, which isn’t surprising considering the companies in northwest Arkansas. How can XNA expand its leisure travel numbers? Is it important for that ratio to be more balanced?
We do, indeed, have a higher demand from business travelers compared with other airports, but this is a good problem to have. We will never lose our focus on serving the business community of northwest Arkansas. That said, we definitely will continue to work on benefiting our leisure travelers.
As we continue to attract more carriers and promote healthy competition, ticket prices will continue to drop. Price is by far the single largest factor in changing leisure travelers’ decision on which airline or airport to use. Falling prices mean we will capture a greater share of those travelers.
You have said XNA needs to be an economic driver of the region. How can it do that most effectively?
Airports facilitate commerce because they effectively shorten the distance between regions. It is much easier to do business with a firm that has a good airport. In this sense, airports serve the role of economic facilitator.
Make no mistake, XNA is a big direct employer in its own right; we have roughly 700 to 800 people working at the airport on any given day. There are also a lot of temporary jobs created from the construction projects at the airport.
We want the companies in northwest Arkansas — big and small — to be successful. Local businesses rely on air travel to move people around the globe to serve their customers or to be served by their vendors or partners. Attracting great employees is also easier if those prospective employees know they can conveniently and economically travel to and from northwest Arkansas for leisure. It really is an important element for quality of life.
Sign up for Daily E-news
