Citing return of business travel, American Airlines adds nonstops from RDU to Texas
American Airlines will become the fourth airline to offer nonstop flights between the Triangle and Austin, Texas.
American announced a big expansion in Austin on Thursday that includes a new daily nonstop from Raleigh-Durham International Airport starting July 2. American says it will add a second daily nonstop between RDU and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Aug 17.
American has not operated nonstop flights between RDU and Austin since 2008, said spokesman Brian Metham.
The carrier said it expects business travel to pick up this summer, helping fill the planes between the two cities. Altogether, American announced nonstop service between Austin and 10 cities starting in May.
American joins Delta, JetBlue and Southwest in offering nonstop service between RDU and Austin. That makes it among the most competitive markets served from RDU, along with Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Orlando.
Air service is slowly recovering at RDU after being decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines now fly nonstop to 38 destinations, down from 57 before the virus but up from a low of 23 last summer.
Passengers have been slowly returning, too, though at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels. In January, the most recent month for which data is available, passenger traffic at RDU was still down about 70% compared to the same month the year before.
American was the second busiest airline at RDU in January, handling about a quarter of all passengers, just behind Delta which carried more than 28%.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Citing return of business travel, American Airlines adds nonstops from RDU to Texas."
