US snowbirds rejoice: American Airlines is this week launching 28 new flights that offer increased access to warmer climates such as Miami and the Caribbean.
More than 40 percent of the new flights are heading to the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Aruba and Grand Cayman.
They include a resumption of service to the Caribbean islands of St Thomas and St Maarten from Philadelphia International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Services to both islands were suspended after they were badly damaged during Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
JFK also a adds flights to Nassau in the Bahamas and Vail, Colorado.
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Also available to those wanting to escape the winter freeze are five new American flights to Miami and two new ways to head to Sarasota.
Chicago gets one of those Sarasota services as well as flights to Grand Cayman, Honolulu, Nassau, Aruba and Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.
The other is from American’s hub at Dallas/Fort Worth, which also gets new flights to Buffalo, New York; Oaxaca, Mexico; and Aruba.
The five Miami services are to Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greenville/Spartanburg, North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Providence Rhode Island; and Houston, Texas.
The airline is also starting the only service between Los Angeles International Airport and Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
US Airlines are expecting a Christmas travel bonanza in the holiday period from December 20 through to January 6.
They will add 143,000 seats a day across their global networks to cope with a forecast 45.7 million passengers over the 18 days.
That’s up 5.2 percent on last year and equates to an average 2.54 million passengers a day – 126,000 a day more than the same period in 2017-18 – between December 20 and January 6.
Industry lobby group Airlines for America (A4A) forecasts daily passenger volumes will range from 2.1 to 2.9 million with Thursday, December 20, Friday, December 21 and Wednesday, December 26 the busiest days.
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