MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (WHTM) — Some of the biggest passenger planes ever to serve Harrisburg International Airport will soon be flying here regularly.

Beginning in August, American Airlines is scheduling as many as three daily flights on 190-seat Airbus A321 aircraft and two daily flights on 150-seat A320s to its hubs in Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and elsewhere, airport spokesman Scott Miller said.

“I’ve been telling them for years: Give me seats to sell, and we’ll sell them,” Miller said. And so far, he said, that has worked out.

“They’ve realized nationally that medium-sized markets are a tremendous growth opportunity for them, and for the past six months, we’ve had one of the top load factors for them in their whole system,” said Miller, citing U.S. Department of Transportation data.

“Load factor” is airline industry speak for — essentially — the percentage of all available seats that are filled with paying passengers.

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American’s surging growth comes as the airport expects its second-busiest Independence Day travel period in history, behind only 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated travel.

July 4th itself is actually one of the slowest days of the period, as travelers spend the day in their destinations rather than going to or from them. The busiest day? Next Monday, July 9, according to an airport forecast, which expects 4,415 passengers to fly into and out of the airport that day.

In August, American will offer a average of about 14 daily flights each way — departing and arriving — to and from Harrisburg International Airport, according to an abc27 News analysis of Cirium schedule data. That’s an increase in flights of 36% compared to August 2023.

Looking at scheduled seats , American will be up fully 55% compared to a year earlier, because of the uncharacteristically large aircraft it’s flying to and from Harrisburg — an airport where some commercial flights have as few as 50 seats.

American is by far Harrisburg’s busiest airline, ranked by seats scheduled for the 12 months from October 2023 through September 2024, according to Cirium schedule data. American accounts for about 44% of all seats at the airport for that period. It is followed by Allegiant, United and Delta, which each have between 17% and 19% of the airport’s seats.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.