Mar. 11—New Orleans travelers flying to and from Texas' fourth-largest city will soon have another option in a welcome bit of good news for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
American Airlines announced Wednesday it's adding a daily non-stop flight from New Orleans to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport starting May 6. The additional service is the first new flight added at Armstrong International since the pandemic, according to airport spokesperson Erin Burns.
Las Vegas, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Washington Dulles, Orlando and Tampa are also adding flights to Austin via American.
The airline attributed the additional flights to the "anticipated increase in business travel this summer," it said in a news release.
American is the second-largest carrier by volume in New Orleans, trailing Southwest Airlines, which also offers service to Austin.
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines haven't resumed their service from New Orleans to Austin since the pandemic, Burns said.
The additional service is a rare bit of positive news for the airport, which, similar to airports across the US, has seen dramatic decreases in flights and passengers over the past year.
The latest passenger data published by the airport is from November. That month it reported 397,945 total passengers. By contrast November 2019 saw 1,146,316 total passengers.
The nearly 400,000 passengers last November was the most recorded by the airport since before air travel came to a screeching a year ago.
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