TRAVELERS’ CHECK : New name doesn’t end confusion
Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008
You know the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport isn’t in Fayetteville even if airlines perpetuate that myth.
It’s been nearly 10 years since the airport opened in Highfill and commercial airline passengers still show up at the Fayetteville airport to board flights.
“It happened yesterday,” MaryKathryn Floyd, an Employee of Million Air, the real Fayetteville airport’s fixed-base operator, said on Thursday.
Yep, it’s still happening.
That’s too bad, too, because it made sense that a name change earlier this year of the Fayetteville airport from Fayetteville Municipal Airport, Drake Field, to Fayetteville Executive Airport, Drake Field, would help.
It didn’t. Not really.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department even changed the road signs a couple of months ago to guide motorists to Fayetteville Executive Airport.
It didn’t help much, either.
Floyd, in fact, still keeps a map on her desk to give directions to people who arrive at Drake Field, thinking they are at XNA. They aren’t happy to learn they need to make a 45-minute drive to Highfill, the little Benton County town near Bentonville where the airport really is.
The Guru hasn’t touched this airport confusion issue since January when U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., sent a letter to the Air Transportation Association that asked the trade organization to notify its members about the confusion and encourage the use of the words “Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.”
American Airlines modified its Web site, refusing to eliminate the word “Fayetteville” but adding the word “Bentonville” so people wouldn’t be locked into one possibility.
In response to Boozman’s request, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines said they’d notify pilots and flight attendants about the issue, said Sara Lasure, a Boozman spokesman.
As best The Guru can tell, it did little good. A passenger on a recent Delta flight said she got the usual “Welcome to Fayetteville” when her flight landed at XNA.
Continental Airlines donates unopened food that’s left after flights arrive in Houston, giving the food to the Houston Food Bank.
Paula Murphy, a food bank spokesman, said Continental has provided 32, 000 pounds of cereal in unopened bowls since May 21. The cereal bowls are used in the Backpack Buddy program, a food bank effort that involves sending food home each Friday with children.
What a great idea, but it doesn’t appear that the same sort of deal will work with XNA and the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank in Bethel Heights. The Guru asked about that possibility.
Continental’s flights arriving at XNA don’t include muffins and sandwiches that are individually wrapped, said Kelly Johnson, the airport director. She checked with other airlines and food they carry that isn’t sold to passengers on one flight “simply rolls to the next” and goes on sale again.
So, maybe this won’t work at XNA, but airlines across the U. S. would be wise to do in their hub cities what Continental does in Houston. Robert J. Smith’s column about people on the move in Northwest Arkansas appears each Monday. He can be reached at rsmith@arkansasonline. com.
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