OKC to Philly
Will Rogers World Airport and American Airlines announced Thursday nonstop flights between Philadelphia and Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City is getting some brotherly love, nonstop.
On June 7, American Airlines will begin offering four nonstop flights (two in each direction) between Oklahoma City and Philadelphia daily, the airline and Oklahoma City officials announced Thursday.
Flights from Oklahoma City to Philadelphia will depart at 6 a.m. and 10:55 a.m. Flights from Philadelphia to Oklahoma City will depart at 8:05 a.m. and 9 p.m.
American said the Oklahoma City-to-Philadelphia flights’ departure times are scheduled to ensure travelers arriving in Philadelphia get there with enough time either to make connections to other destinations in the Northeast or to make connections to
trans-Atlantic flights.
American will use the Embraer 175 aircraft, which can be configured to carry between 76 and 88 passengers.
Oklahoma City officials were ecstatic about the added service American announced Thursday, noting it’s the second expansion of air service to and from Oklahoma City that American has
announced since December. That month, the company said it was adding a daily nonstop flight between Oklahoma City and Phoenix.
Its Phoenix route gives flyers out of Oklahoma City more options, since Southwest Airlines also offers a nonstop flight to that city. American will start those flights on April 3.
Mark Kranenburg, Oklahoma City’s director of airports, described American’s Thursday announcement as another notch in the city’s belt of neverceasing efforts to grow its airports system.
“Philadelphia is absolutely a critical city for us — one of our target markets,” Kranenburg said. “We have been after it with American for the last two or three years. The connections they have with other cities up and down the Northeast corridor through Philadelphia is going to be huge for us.”
Kranenburg said Oklahoma City airport officials constantly are visiting with airlines that already fly to the city, and others that don’t yet, to get them to extend service to Oklahoma.
“We are very happy they saw the value in Oklahoma City, and that we have a very strong market.”