American Airlines to launch nonstop flights between Washington, D.C., and Melbourne, Florida
American Airlines will begin offering flights linking Melbourne with Washington, D.C., this winter.
The airline will advertise seasonal flights from Feb. 17 through May 4 between Reagan National Airport and Melbourne Orlando International Airport. Flights will occur on Saturdays and Sundays.
“This is the first step of daily service. So please buy your tickets," Greg Donovan, airport executive director, told the crowd during Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony for Dassault Falcon Jet's aviation maintenance facility, which is projected to create 400 new jobs.
"It goes into early spring. If we do well, we'll see daily service," Donovan said of the D.C. flights.
In May 2019, American Airlines debuted twice-weekly seasonal nonstop flights Melbourne to the nation's capital — but they proved short-lived as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed air travel to a crawl the following year.
Melbourne’s total number of incoming and departing passengers shot up 88% from 372,287 in 2021 to 701,257 in 2022, thanks to TUI Airways bringing in tourists from the United Kingdom amid the airport’s $72 million passenger terminal expansion.
The airport's all-time record dates to 1990 with 765,723 total passengers. Regarding statistics, Donovan said, “you can dice them a lot of different ways” — but airport traffic is on track to surpass that mark this year.
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Through September, MLB handled 582,873 incoming and departing passengers. That represented a 6.7% increase compared with 546,212 passengers during the same span last year.
Included in this year’s sum, domestic total passengers were up 14.1% (378,434 versus 331,587) while international total passengers were down 5.3% (191,086 versus 201,720).
Why the international decrease? Last year represented an anomaly on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, with higher numbers of tourists booking “revenge travel” after years of restrictions, Donovan told the Melbourne Airport Authority on Oct. 25.
Donovan said increased passenger counts “will strengthen our hand” when applying for future Federal Aviation Administration grants. In addition, through Aug. 31, the airport saw key year-over-year revenue increases:
Parking lot fees: up 24% ($1.94 million).
Car rental concessions: up 19% ($1.70 million).
Restaurant concessions: up 65% ($319,855).
However, total passengers in 2023 are projected to fall below the 850,000-plus mark that airport officials predicted this spring when Avelo Airlines launched service.
Avelo announced plans to fly three routes from Melbourne. But flights to Wilmington, Delaware never materialized. And flights to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, ceased by August because of low demand. Now, Avelo flies twice weekly from MLB to New Haven, Connecticut.
“There are so many things that are outside of our control — economy, cost of fuel, decisions made on the part of some of the newer carriers and the fledgling carriers — that can really start to change this,” Donovan said of passenger counts during the Oct. 25 meeting.
“So I don’t want to jinx us. But I think we’re on the right track,” he said.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: American Airlines resuming flights from Melbourne to Washington, D.C.
