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Originally Posted by FWAAA
Originally Posted by
Ambraciot
The direct flight FLL-LAX is a new route.
It's not a direct flight, it's a nonstop flight; there's a world of difference between "direct" and "nonstop" flights.
On top of that, it's not a new route, it's the resumption of service on a route served by AA for many years until two or three years ago, when it was discontinued.
It
is a direct flight, that also happens to be nonstop.
All nonstop flights are direct flights; but not all direct flights are nonstop. While it is true that an airline which markets a flight as "direct" is almost certainly talking about a flight that makes at least one stop, all nonstop flights are "direct" because they meet the requirement of having a single flight number.
I believe that the definition given in the link you provided is incorrect -- not to mention internally inconsistent. Wikipedia is correct in this case, indicating that a direct flight "may" (not "must") have one or more intermediate stops. The Wikipedia entry also provides some history of the term "direct flight," indicating that the term was coined by OAG to differentiate flights with a single flight number (including nonstops) from "connecting" flights, which OAG listed separately in its timetables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_flight