HIGHFILL — Fewer passengers last year at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport are not grounding plans to attract more airlines.

The airport had 511,103 paid passengers in 2009, a 6.33 percent decrease from the 545,670 passengers in 2008. The 2009 number is the lowest amount of paid passengers per year since 2004, when 488,878 people boarded airplanes.

Airport directors expect passengers to increase 3 percent this year.

“We’re just looking at what other airports are doing and in the region. Tulsa at the end of the year is down 11.6 percent,” said Kelly Johnson, airport director. “There are some indicators that give us the impression we are doing better than the others. We are holding a positive thought that 2010 will pick back up.”

The regional airport had fewer flights in 2009 than 2008. The airport gained three, twice-weekly flights from Allegiant Air to vacation destinations. The airport lost daily service to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and to Los Angeles, Johnson said.

The airport board will decide in February whether tobuild a second-level concourse, to make room for more airline gates and attract additional carriers.

Airport officials have about $20 million in federal grants to pay for the expansion, should the board approve the project at a Feb. 17 meeting. Bids should be opened later this month for the proposed concourse expansion.

Besides airline gates, the concourse would include passenger amenities like restrooms and a larger concession area, said Scott Van Laningham, regional airport chief executive officer.

The concourse would take about two years to finish and air travel may increase by then.

The Air Transport Association of America reported 2009 passenger revenue declined 18 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, the largest decline on record.

The U.S. airlines’ trade association predicted last year was the bottom for air travel.

Anecdotal evidence suggests improving airline revenues this year, James C. May, the trade association’s president and chief executive officer, said in a Wednesday news release.

“However, we are seeing higher fuel prices as well, which could hinder recovery efforts,” May said.

The regional airport opened in November 1998 andhad 573,078 paid passengers board airplanes at its peak of passenger traffic in 2007.

The regional airport had 38,035 paid passengers in December, a 9.11 percent decrease from the 41,851 paid passengers in December 2008.

The only months with more passengers in 2009 were June, July, September and November. The other months had lower passenger numbers than in 2008, according to airport statistics.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which has weekly flights from the regional airport to Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas and Los Angeles, has been a bright spot in the airline industry.

Allegiant had 5.33 million passengers in 2009, nearly a 24 percent increase from the 4.3 million passengers in 2008.

AMR Corp.’s American Airlines reported 122 billion passenger miles in 2009, a 7.1 percent decrease from the 131.7 billion passenger miles in 2008. American cut capacity by 7.1 percent.

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines Inc. reported a 6.2 percent passenger decline, from 171.72 million passengers in 2008 to 161 million passengers in 2009. The figures include Delta and Northwest Airlines after they merged operations.

Area, Pages 9 on 01/27/2010