American Airlines gears up for busy summer travel at Phoenix Sky Harbor

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — It’s starting to heat up in the Valley and with the beautiful weather comes thousands of travelers wanting to enjoy (or escape) the hot Arizona sun.

After Phoenix Sky Harbor saw record numbers in 2023, American Airlines says it’s ready to ensure travelers have a smooth experience in the airport this summer.

The airline expects to serve nearly 3 million customers on over 26,000 flights between May 17 and Sept. 3 at Sky Harbor.

“We have invested in our team members, and we’ve really invested in our technology and our tools. So I believe that their experience is going to be much more seamless, and they’re going to enjoy it,” said Sophia Philis-Ortiz, American Airlines vice president of Phoenix hub operations.

To prepare for the influx of summer travelers, American Airlines says it hired and trained team members and ensured its vendors were ready to prepare the aircraft, equipment and facilities.

The airline has also worked to reduce maintenance delays, find ways to keep the aircraft cool and invest in more technology, like an analytical tool that helps reduce the amount of time a traveler is delayed on an aircraft.

“We’ve done a lot of work on ensuring that when we do have irregular operations that we go ahead and we bounce back a lot quicker so that the delays are minimized,” said Philis-Ortiz.

These adjustments come after “America’s Friendliest Airport” had its busiest year in 2023. Around 48 million people walked through Sky Harbor’s doors last year, 10% higher than in 2022.

Sky Harbor added new destinations, such as a nonstop flight to Paris. American Airlines also added more destinations from Phoenix, including Tijuana, Mexico, Provo, Utah, and Pasco, Washington.

American Airlines expects its busiest travel day in Phoenix to be on July 7, with 239 flights taking off from Sky Habor.

To learn more about how to prepare for summer travel, click/tap here.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.