Northwest Arkansas National Airport has approved a $78.8 million construction contract with CDI Contractors for a Western Concourse that will add five net gates to a terminal straining under record passenger volumes.

The two-level, approximately 111,000-square-foot addition will sit on the west side of the existing terminal at XNA, the airport serving the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers region. It will deliver seven new gates, but the airport will remove two existing B gates to make room, leaving a net gain of five. New hold rooms, restrooms and concession space are planned, along with improved airfield access.

Construction begins this fall and will take approximately two years, with completion expected in 2029. The airport selected a gable-roof design intended to provide architectural continuity with the existing terminal while controlling long-term construction and maintenance costs — a pragmatic choice for a mid-sized facility financing growth largely on its own balance sheet.

The expansion responds to measurable demand. Through the first seven months of 2026, enplanements at XNA rose more than 5% against the same period in 2025. July produced 129,397 departing passengers, a figure that followed another monthly record in June. Sustained growth at that rate consumes gate capacity quickly; a five-gate net addition restores headroom for carriers to add frequencies and upgauge aircraft without new terminal limits becoming the binding constraint on network expansion.

Financing structure carries its own milestone

The airport is pursuing a federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to help finance the concourse. Airport officials say the lower-cost financing could save tens of millions of dollars in interest over conventional borrowing. If approved, it would mark the first use of a TIFIA loan for an airport terminal construction project — a financing precedent that other mid-sized airports watching XNA's growth economics are likely to note.

The Western Concourse is one strand of a broader infrastructure program. The airport is also planning a multilevel consolidated rental car and public parking facility that would consolidate rental ready/return operations, customer service, fueling, cleaning and light maintenance under one roof while adding structured public parking. Consolidating those functions typically reduces shuttle traffic and land consumption while improving the passenger experience at the curb.

Airfield work is planned as well. The airport intends to rehabilitate the terminal apron, replacing deteriorated concrete, improving drainage and pavement strength, and expanding aircraft deicing and remain-overnight parking capacity. The deicing and RON expansions matter operationally: both limit schedule resilience in winter and during early-morning departure banks when apron positions run short.

Capacity consequences

Taken together, the projects address the two constraints that most often cap growth at airports of XNA's size — gate availability and apron capacity — before they harden into structural limits. The 2029 completion date means the airport will operate through at least two more years of record traffic growth before the new gates open, a window in which carriers will compete for existing positions.

Airport officials have framed the TIFIA application as the next decision point in the program. If the loan clears federal approval, the first-of-its-kind terminal financing would lower the project's carrying cost and could shape how similarly sized airports fund concourse construction nationwide.