Louisville International Airport adding New Orleans flight

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Last month, the airport also announced it was adding its first nonstop flight to the West Coast. American Airlines will fly daily to Los Angeles International Airport starting April 2. 

“We’re thrilled to see Allegiant adding New Orleans to our growing list of nonstop flights,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. “This is just another indication of our city’s momentum.”

To coax the carrier into offering the Los Angeles route, a local group dedicated to bringing more nonstop flights to big coastal cities worked behind the scenes to ensure American against losses. In that case, the group — the Louisville Regional Airlift Development or LRAD program — used a pool of $3 million, much of it public money, to help backstop losses for two years. 

The program was not involved in the New Orleans deal, said Jim Welch, who heads the board of the local airport authority. The group, however, continues to push for nonstop flights to Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.

Proponents say lack of air service has held back the city’s population growth. One presentation from the airlift development program compares Louisville’s population to that of Austin, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh since 1980.

Louisville’s metropolitan area, as currently defined, had a larger population in 1980 than Austin, Nashville and Raleigh, and was about 100,000 people behind Charlotte, according to the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville. Today, Louisville trails them all. 

Over the past decade, the number of nonstop destinations reachable from Louisville has held steady at around 30, while the number reachable from Nashville, a small-scale hub for Southwest Airlines, has grown from 49 to 64, the Louisville Regional Airport Authority has said. 

Six airlines provide service from Louisville: Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United.