American Airlines is adding another daily flight between the Central Wisconsin Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International-Airport.
Central Wisconsin Airport Director Brian Grefe says this is something that they've been asking for.
“They’ve seen tremendous demand in the market. All their flights have been nearly full almost all year, so they saw the opportunity and are adding that third flight back into our schedule,” said Grefe.
He says airport administration got the news with very little notice, himself included, because the airline sets the schedule based on their needs.
“On their own in the best interest of their company. They don’t necessarily inform the airport or have too, as long as we have capacity and they have a lease, which both are true.”
Grefe says passenger counts have long shown that a third American Airlines flight to Chicago is needed.
“We have tremendous amount of demand from Chicago to the Northwoods. We also have a lot of people wanting to get out.”
Grefe says it might not seem like a huge addition on the surface any growth is good growth for the airport.
“Yes it’s one flight, but it’s 50 percent more seats on American, so we’ll be able to serve that many more passengers.”
American currently offers two daily flights to Chicago-O'Hare, the third flight will be added in early July. CWA lost some capacity when United Airlines suspended all of their flights earlier this year- which led to the loss of service to Detroit.
Grefe is still hopeful that they will be able to announce the addition of a discount carrier later this year with service to vacation destinations in either Florida or Arizona.
