New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport is claiming that, with the success of its ongoing recovery effort following Hurricane Katrina, the airport has restored 58 daily roundtrip flight operations to 21 non-stop destinations, representing 7,000 daily roundtrip passenger seats.

This progress puts the airport well on its way to its pre-Katrina operations, which included 166 daily, scheduled flights to 42 cities on 13 airlines, for a total of 21,000 seats.

Most airlines have returned and continue to increase their service to the New Orleans Metro area. On December 1, 2005, Delta increased their service with one flight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and three additional flights to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The number of overnight flights with early morning departures is slowing increasing as more local hotel rooms become available for flight crews. (This has been a major hindrance to a schedule increase, since relief workers and FEMA have occupied most of the available hotel rooms)

Additionally, more service is expected to return soon. American will resume service to St. Louis later this month, and in January, Continental and United will resume service to Cleveland and Los Angeles, respectively. February will boast an even brighter future as United begins service to San Antonio and Oklahoma City, while several other carriers increase the frequency of their service to New Orleans.

By the end of February, Armstrong International will be approaching 50% of its pre-Katrina service level.

FMI: www.flymsy.com