American Airlines is getting ready for summer travel by restoring more flights and re-opening key Admirals Club lounges.

In the best day for aviation since March, Emirates, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic all outline similar plans.

In response to improving demand for air travel, American said it was planning to fly 55 per cent of its domestic schedule and nearly 20 per cent of its international schedule in July compared to the same period last year.

Systemwide capacity amounts to approximately 40 per cent of July 2019 flying.

By the last week of May, the airline carried a daily average of about 110,000 customers per day — an increase of 71 per cent over the approximately 32,000 average daily customers the airline served in April.

Compared to the spring, American is increasing frequency of flying from hubs, including Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to destinations customers are searching and booking most, with increased flying to major cities in Florida, Gulf Coast cities as well as mountain destinations.

The airline also increased frequency of flying to Asheville, North Carolina (AVL), Savannah, Georgia (SAV), and Charleston, South Carolina (CHS) for business and leisure travellers.

“We’re seeing a slow but steady rise in domestic demand.

“After a careful review of data, we’ve built a July schedule to match,” said Vasu Raja, American senior vice president of network strategy.

“Our July schedule includes the smallest year-over-year capacity reduction since March.

“We’ll continue to look for prudent opportunities to restore service so our customers can travel whenever and wherever they are ready.”

While international demand continued to be diminished, today marked the return of service to eight international destinations.

These include service from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Amsterdam (AMS), Paris (CDG) and Frankfurt (FRA), as well as service from Miami (MIA) to Antigua (ANU) in the Caribbean and Guayaquil (GYE) and Quito (UIO) in South America.

American also restored additional service to London (LHR) from Chicago (ORD) and New York (JFK).

American will delay the return of some previously announced international routes - including transatlantic service from Philadelphia (PHL) and CLT - to August.

The carrier will also begin reopening Admirals Club lounges in phases, beginning June 22nd, after making improvements to adapt the clubs and product offerings to reinforce the well-being of customers and everyone who works in the clubs.

Locations in Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York will be among the first to reopen.