You can now take a daily direct flight from Louisville to Los Angeles

SDF to LAX is now a reality.

Officials (literally) rolled out the red carpet as the inaugural American Airlines nonstop flight from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport took off under clear skies Wednesday morning.

The scheduled 7:24 a.m. American Airlines Flight 2050 was slightly delayed, but that did not put a damper on what officials called a "big day" for Louisville and the region.

"Just as our native son, Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all time, took Louisville's story to the globe, today marks a great day taking Louisville's story again to new audiences," said Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, the chief of Louisville Forward, the city's economic development arm.

"Not only will we reach that sixth largest economy in California and our densely populated West Coast, this will provide new connections for us to key markets in Asia where we have growing exports for Kentucky's companies," Wiederwohl added.

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Last October, airport officials announced the daily nonstop flight to the LAX hub of American Airlines.

Los Angeles is the country's second-largest metropolitan area and third-largest in the world by gross domestic product, a measure of economic activity, officials previously noted.

The daily flight on a 128-seat Airbus 319 is four hours and 30 minutes, which is two hours faster than any route with connections, according to airport officials. It departs daily from Louisville at 7:24 a.m. and arrives in Los Angeles at 9 a.m., local time. A return flight departs from LAX at 10:55 p.m. and arrives in Louisville at 6:02 a.m.

More than 40 connecting options to cities in the western U.S., Hawaii and Asia are now available. And the direct flight to LA is the only one-stop connection to Osaka, Japan.

Louisville Regional Airport Authority Executive Director Dan Mann said the new route continues SDF's momentum, noting the past year was the second busiest in the airport's history.

American already offers seven nonstop destinations from Louisville: Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Miami, Reagan National in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York's LaGuardia.

"American adding Los Angeles service is a vote of confidence in the region and SDF," Mann said. "Cities our size and this distance from Los Angeles generally don't have nonstop service. Louisville does."

LAX serves as American's hub for flights to Asia, something Gov. Matt Bevin's office highlighted before the announcement last fall.

Wednesday is "an inflection point" for Louisville as the city becomes a destination for business travelers along with tourists and bourbon lovers, said Terry Gill, secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

"We know from an economic development standpoint that there is no substitute for access to major markets, and there is no more major market than California," Gill said.

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Louisville Regional Airlift Development — a local group dedicated to bringing more nonstop flights to big coastal cities — is using a $3 million pool to backstop any losses, quarterly, over two years, Gill previously told the Courier Journal.

Much of that $3 million is public money. It includes a $1.33 million grant from the state, $400,000 from the city of Louisville and $300,000 from Louisville Tourism. 

LRAD continues to push for nonstop flights to Boston, San Francisco and Seattle, for which it would offer a similar revenue guarantee. 

"What a great time to be a Louisvillian and have a direct flight to LAX," LRAD representative Chuck Denny said. "Let's use this flight. Let's use it often."

Denny, the regional president for PNC Bank, added "if we do this one right," more direct flights to Boston and other cities will follow.

American Airlines Government Affairs Specialist Dale Morris said the airline's capacity in Louisville has grown 20 percent in just one year.

While numbers are not yet available on how many passengers have already booked flights between Louisville and Los Angeles, Morris said early signs are promising.

"Louisville is a special place, and you all are very special to us," Morris said.

Wednesday's launch of the Los Angeles service comes at a busy and exciting time for Louisville's airport.

Board members voted in January to rename the airport in honor of Ali.

And efforts at incorporating the legendary boxer's name and brand into the airport have been rolled into a $100 million project to upgrade the airport's terminal, jetways, rental car area, elevators and moving walkways over the next three to five years.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030.