ST. LOUIS — Southwest Airlines will add to its list of nonstop flights from St. Louis Lambert International Airport in November when it adds two new daily flights to Indianapolis International Airport.
"We are thrilled Southwest is adding an additional nonstop route from St. Louis," Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, Lambert's director, said in a statement. "During these unprecedented times, it is important that we work with our airline partners to increase routes instead of decrease service."
Southwest, which is Lambert's largest carrier, will operate twice daily from St. Louis to Indianapolis at 8:35 a.m. and 7:20 p.m. Return flights from Indianapolis will arrive at 7:45 a.m. and 7:05 p.m.
In addition to the daily nonstops, St. Louis is expected to record a 9% increase year over year in overall flight activity with the airline in November and a 12% increase in December, officials said.
Southwest, located in Terminal 2, serves 53 destinations from St. Louis. The airline hasn't made any permanent cuts to its route list at Lambert since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, though temporary reductions of mostly seasonal routes have been made, a spokesman for the airport said.
More than 55,000 passengers traveled through Lambert in April 2020, a decrease of 96% from the same month last year, officials said in May. Aircraft takeoffs and landings decreased 60%, while air cargo increased 1.3%. Nearly 3 million passengers traveled through Lambert from January to April, a 40% decrease from the same period in 2019.
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