American Airlines plans to start booking flights to full capacity starting next week

Pandemic travel is about to get a whole lot more crowded.
(Image credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Beginning next week, American Airlines will resume fully booking flights after having reserved half its middle seats in economy since April to better enforce social distancing, USA Today reports. "As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July 1," the airline said in a statement. "American will continue to notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights when available, all without incurring any cost."

The move, counterintuitively, comes after the United States experienced back-to-back record-high caseloads of coronavirus this week. American Airlines, though, will join United and Spirit, which are already booking flights to capacity. Southwest, Delta, and JetBlue, meanwhile, are still restricting the number of seats for sale, and Southwest committed to do so through at least Sept. 30.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.