American Airlines Resumes International Travel with a Bang

American Airlines, and a bevy of carriers who fly globally, were more than prepared Monday for the resumption of fully vaccinated international visitors traveling to the United States for the first time in 600 days.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, American President Robert Isom said the carrier had scheduled 150 international flights and were welcoming 40,000 visitors just on day one.

“People want to get out on the road,” Isom said, adding he believes the international travel isn’t just for the holidays but will extend into 2022. “There are families and grandparents that haven’t seen, you know, children in a long time. Business people that really want to get out and make contact with customers, you know, it’s all over the place.”

And it was encouraging across the board.

A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines told CNN that many flights on Monday were at capacity, and that the airline has seen a 450 percent increase in international bookings since the Biden administration set the November 8 day of return in late September.

Lufthansa told CNN it operated 31 fully booked flights to the U.S, while Virgin Atlantic said its flights were 98 percent full.

The network also noted that, according to the aviation analytics company OAG, travelers from Europe to the U.S. in December is expected to be three-quarters filled from what it was in December of 2019.