Memorial Field Airport

Hot Springs' first commercial airline service began in the late 1940s with Chicago and Southern Air Lines (C&S). In 1950 C&S was operating daily round trip Douglas DC-3 service on a routing of Detroit - Toledo, OH - Fort Wayne, IN - Indianapolis - Evansville, IN - Paducah, KY - Memphis - Hot Springs - Shreveport - Houston (Hobby Airport).[6] C&S merged with Delta Air Lines in 1953 and Delta continued serving Hot Springs using Convair 440 propliners[7] with nonstop flights to Little Rock and Shreveport and direct, no change of plane service to Chicago (Midway Airport), Houston (Hobby Airport), New Orleans, St. Louis and other destinations.[8] Shortly before discontinuing service in mid-1969, Delta had upgraded their flights to Douglas DC-9-30 jets.[9]

Trans-Texas Airways, (TTa), began service in 1953 using Douglas DC-3 aircraft with a daily round trip "milk run" flight routing of Memphis - West Helena, AR - Stuttgart, AR - Pine Bluff, AR - Little Rock - Hot Springs - Texarkana - Tyler, TX - Dallas - Fort Worth.[10] During the 1960's TTa upgraded their service using Convair 240 piston propliners and later to Convair 600 turboprops[11] In 1968, the airline began operating the first jet service to Memorial Airport using the Douglas DC-9-10 with a daily nonstop flight to Dallas and was also flying direct, one stop DC-9 service to Memphis via Little Rock.[12] Trans-Texas then changed its name to Texas International Airlines in 1969. Texas International (TI) continued to serve Hot Springs with DC-9 jetliners on a daily basis and in 1970 was flying nonstop to Memphis and Texarkana with continuing, direct service to Dallas and Houston.[13] By 1972, TI was operating daily DC-9 jet service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Hot Springs via intermediate stops in Albuquerque and Dallas (Love Field).[14]

Central Airlines began service to Hot Springs by 1955 on a new route between Tulsa and Little Rock which made stops in Ft. Smith and Hot Springs using Douglas DC-3's and later upgrading to Convair 600 turboprops in the mid 1960's. Central was merged into Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) in 1967 and continued to serve Hot Springs with Convair 580 and Convair 600 turboprops nonstop to Fayetteville, Ft. Smith, Little Rock and Memphis at different times over the years. In 1967, Frontier was flying nonstop to Fort Smith and Little Rock with direct service being operated to Kansas City, Omaha and Denver.[15]

Through the 1950s and 1960s Hot Springs was served by three airlines consecutively. In early 1969 there were a total of 13 departures per day, four of them on DC-9 jets operated by both Delta and Texas International. With the passing of the Airline Deregulation Act, Frontier and Texas International both discontinued service by 1979 at which time commuter airlines began serving Hot Springs with direct propjet flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Memphis and Tulsa.[16] Rio Airways served from 1979 through 1983, Scheduled Skyways from 1983 through 1985, Air Midwest from 1985 through 1986, and Lone Star Airlines from 1989 through 1998. All flew Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners. Rio previously flew Beechcraft 99 turboprops nonstop to Dallas/Fort Worth and Memphis and Lone Star operated Dornier 328 propjets on the DFW route as well. Lone Star first operated as Exec Express II using Piper Navajo twin prop aircraft to DFW and was operating as Aspen Mountain Air at the end of their service. From early 1999 through September, 2002, Big Sky Airlines served Hot Springs followed by Mesa Airlines from October, 2002 through May, 2008. SeaPort Airlines began flights in March, 2010 using Pilatus PC-12 aircraft but went out of business in September, 2016. The current provider, Southern Airways Express, began service in March 2017 with nonstop flights to DFW using single engine Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft. Memorial Airport had several periods in between carriers where there was no airline service. Most passengers now use the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas.