RALEIGH

The arrival of American Airlines flight 173 from London’s Heathrow Airport on Friday afternoon re-establishes a direct connection between the Triangle and Europe that has weathered recessions, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and now, after a two-year hiatus, the COVID-19 pandemic.

The return flight to London, which left Raleigh-Durham International Airport shortly before 7:20 p.m. Friday, was nearly full, and summer bookings are strong, said Jason Reisinger, who manages global network planning for American.

American suspended the RDU London flight as COVID-19 and traveling restrictions devastated air travel in March 2020.

The airline rescheduled the flight several times, only to put it off again. As soon as demand seemed to be returning, a new variant of the coronavirus would pop up, causing another spike in cases, Reisinger said.

“As soon as that was all over the news, everybody was rushing to cancel their flights as fast as they could, and demand evaporated,” he said. “We’d go up and down those troughs and peaks multiple times. And so it just didn’t feel right.”

Now, demand is holding up even as COVID-19 appears to be surging again.

“What’s changed now is we’ve seen that even as the virus changes a little bit, it appears to be less virulent,” Reisinger said. “People seem to be still traveling. We’ve not seen a drop off, and the business community continues to travel.”

FLIGHT BEGAN NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO

American began flying nonstop from RDU to London in 1994, when the Triangle was still a hub for the airline. American had previously tried nonstop flights from RDU to Orly Airport outside Paris in 1988, but that proved unprofitable.

After much lobbying from RDU and the Triangle community, the federal government awarded American a route to Gatwick Airport outside London. In 2008, American was able to shift over to Heathrow, which is closer to central London and offers far more connections to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

American’s RDU hub was struggling when the London flight began and was closed in 1996. But the carrier has maintained the London flight, and it remains one of only two American trans-Atlantic flights from non-hub airports (Boston Logan has the other).

In 2017, American began using larger Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which have 272 seats, including 36 with lie-flat seating.

That’s because the demand is there, Reisinger said. The Triangle has relatively affluent leisure travelers, a large number of university students and faculty and a strong business community, particularly pharmaceutical and tech companies, that value a nonstop connection to London.

“It’s a great mix of every type of traffic that we’re looking for,” Reisinger said. “And that allows this flight to be sustainable year around.”

Steve Cain, president of the Triangle British American Business Council, said the group’s members have greatly missed the nonstop service between RDU and London.

“This is such an important route for both NC and the UK for business, tourism/leisure, and family connections for British ex-pats living in the Triangle and beyond,” Cain wrote in an email. “To say that we’re pleased and excited to see the return of the AA nonstop service between RDU and LHR may be the understatement of the year!”

TRANS-ATLANTIC TRAVEL IS BACK AT RDU

RDU travelers now have three trans-Atlantic flights to choose from. Last month, Icelandair began flying from the Triangle to Iceland for the first time and plans to maintain that service through October.

And on Aug. 3, Delta Air Lines plans to resume its daily nonstop flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Delta established the RDU-Paris flight in 2016.

In addition, Air Canada this week resumed its daily nonstop flights between RDU and Montreal. The airline also flies daily between the Triangle and Toronto.

Overall, demand for travel through RDU remains about 85% of where it was in 2019, before COVID-19. Last month, for first time in years, American’s share of the RDU market, at 31%, was slightly larger than Delta’s, according to airport president Michael Landguth.

That may be because American is offering more flights and seats from the Triangle than it did before the pandemic, Reisinger said.

“That is abnormal for American Airlines; most stations on average are down,” he said. “That says a lot about how American Airlines feel about the Raleigh community.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2022 2:14 PM.