American Airlines Group Inc. Wednesday said it is preparing for a near-normal summer schedule, expecting widespread vaccination to stir up travel hunger.
American is one of several airlines that have added flights within the US and to nearby destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean, responding to signs of rising demand as people start booking travel again. American said it would fly 150 new routes this summer and now expects to offer more than 90% of its pre-pandemic seating in the US and 80% of its international capacity.
Summer is usually the busiest and most lucrative time of the year for airlines, but the coronavirus pandemic has dashed their hopes for last summer’s travel season. Carriers like Americans who had bet on rising demand had to scale back their schedules as business resumed their rise and many cities and states imposed new travel restrictions and curbed activities such as indoor dining.
However, the US economy has gained momentum as more vaccines have been distributed. Airlines think the rising demand they’ve seen in recent weeks is likely to continue as more people are vaccinated, even though newly reported cases of coronavirus are emerging in some areas and more infectious variants are spreading. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still discourages travel, earlier this month it said it was a low-risk activity for people who have been fully vaccinated.
Other airlines have also said that they are seeing an increase in fuller flights and an increasing number of future bookings and that they have quickly filled their route networks 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-fare airline, announced eight new routes on Tuesday and plans to add flights to Alaska.