American Airlines Group Inc. said Wednesday it is preparing to operate an almost normal summer schedule, with the expectation that widespread vaccination will whet the appetite for travel.
American is one of several airlines that have added flights within the U.S. and to nearby destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean, grabbing signs of increasing demand as people resume travel. American said it will fly 150 new routes this summer, and now expects to offer more than 90% of its seating capacity in the US and 80% of its international capacity.
Summer is usually the busiest and most profitable time of the year for airlines, but the coronavirus pandemic has diminished their hopes for last summer’s travel season. Manufacturers like Americans who were sitting on the increasing demand had to reduce their schedules when business numbers started to climb again and many cities and states introduced new travel restrictions and restricted activities such as indoor dining.
However, the US economy is growing as more vaccines are distributed. Airline believes the growing demand they have seen over the past few weeks is likely to continue as more people are vaccinated, although newly reported cases of coronavirus have increased in some areas and spread more contagious variants. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to discourage it, it was said earlier this month that it is a low-risk activity for people who have been fully vaccinated.
Other airlines also said they were seeing an increase in fuller flights and increasing numbers of future bookings, and that they were filling up their route networks quickly for the summer. Discounter Allegiant Travel Co. said last week that average daily bookings in March were higher than in March 2019. Frontier Airlines, another low-cost carrier, announced eight new routes on Tuesday and plans to service Alaska.