Region lands more than 50 new flights and destinations in 2021

The upcoming summer and fall might be the best time to book a nonstop flight to somewhere out of Florida: all major commercial airports in the region have recently announced multiple new nonstop destinations. 

A Business Observer analysis of flight information from the five airports shows at least 50 forthcoming nonstop routes have been introduced so far in 2021. A breakdown includes:

Tampa International Airport: Some 20 new routes are headed to the region’s largest airport. Breeze Airways, a new airline from JetBlue founder David Neeleman, has 10 of them, including new-to-Tampa routes such as Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Norfolk, Virginia. Other new routes include Portland, Oregon on Alaska Airlines and Los Angeles on American.

St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport: six new destinations, from Provo, Utah and Bentonville and Little Rock, Arkansas, on Allegiant, to Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sun Country. The most recent addition is Atlantic City, through a Sun Country charter program to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

Sarasota Bradenton International Airport: a dozen new routes, from Milwaukee on Southwest Airlines to Peoria, Illinois and Concord, North Carolina on Allegiant.  Southwest made another big announcement June 10 by adding  New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Reagan National in Washington, D.C. to its nonstop roster. It also added daily service to Dallas and seasonal service to Austin, Texas.

Punta Gorda Airport: Three new routes, including expanded service to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Southwest Florida International Airport: The Fort Myers airport has introduced 10 new routes that will commence later this year, with a concentration on the Midwest. Sun Country Airlines will begin nonstop service from Duluth, Minnesota, Green Bay and Milwaukee in December. And in a major coup, though not until March 2022, Eurowings Discover will begin service to Frankfurt, Germany.