American Airlines plans new nonstop flight from Indy, revives two others

American Airlines plans to launch a nonstop flight from Indianapolis International Airport to Orlando and revive nonstop routes to Los Angeles and Boston, the airport announced Thursday.

Weekly nonstop flights to Orlando will begin on Saturday, June 5.

Nonstop flights to Los Angeles will resume May 6 after halting due to the pandemic.

Nonstop flights to Boston, which were announced in January 2020 but never got off the ground because of the health emergency, will begin June 3.

Based on current customer demand across its network, American predicts it will operate a schedule with domestic capacity almost equal to 2019.

“Each month as we’ve turned the corner into 2021, we’ve announced new nonstop flights,” said Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the Indianapolis Airport Authority, in written remarks. “Now we’re also seeing previously announced or operated flights reemerge. That’s a good sign, and we’re optimistic as leisure travel rejuvenates the industry.”

Airline bookings have been on the rise since around mid-February. The United States set another record earlier this week for the number of air travelers since the pandemic set in.

Nearly 1.67 million people were screened at U.S. airport checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration. That was the highest number screened since March 12 of last year when air travel began to plummet.

However, it was still 35% below the number of airport travelers reported on the comparable Sunday in 2019, according to TSA figures.

TSA has screened at least 1 million people every day since March 11. Vacation destinations have been most popular. Business travel, which is more profitable for airlines, remains drastically reduced.

Government restrictions are also sharply limiting international travel, another lucrative piece of the airline business.