MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE) saw a record year in 2021 for new air service additions, officials said on Wednesday.
MKE said the COVID-19 pandemic had a large impact on air travel patterns, and airlines responded by adding service in leisure markets and preparing for increased business travels in 2022.
In 2021, JetBlue, Spirit, and Sun Country announced they would enter the Milwaukee market.
Existing airlines also enhanced their schedules from MKE to other destinations.
"In all, air carriers added new or increased service from Milwaukee to 20 nonstop destinations. Many of these markets had not been served from MKE before," MKE said in a news release.
Spirit Airlines, which started service from MKE on June 24, had the largest amount of new service. It features a daily nonstop from Milwaukee to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Orlando. Officials say Spirit also began flying daily nonstops to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Phoenix, and Tampa. Nonstops to Cancun were added three times per week starting in December.
Sun Country Airlines started nonstop flights to both Las Vegas and Minneapolis in August, and then flights to Fort Myers, Phoenix and Cancun were added in December.
JetBlue Airways is slated for March 27, 2022, when daily flights start to both Boston and New York-JFK, according to MKE.
