American Airlines Adds Domestic Routes – AirlineGeeks.com

American Airlines Adds Domestic Routes

American Airlines late last week filed large changes to its network including the introduction of multiple new routes to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and a new route to Honolulu from Charlotte. Other moves involve entering markets against competitors in key cities.

On May 6, 2021, American Airlines will relaunch service to Honolulu from its hub in Charlotte. According to the Charlotte Observer, this route was operated previously in 2010 after being dropped for unprofitability by US Airways.  The flight to Honolulu will initially operate six times weekly with an upgauge to daily service in June. American Airlines will use its Boeing 777-200, which has 273 seats with 37 business class seats in a 2-2 configuration, 24 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration and 212 economy seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. 

The route will be a summer-seasonal supplement to American’s Honolulu service through its other four hubs including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Phoenix.  Additionally, the route will be one of many options along the East Coast.  Recently, Hawaiian announced a new service to Orlando which will support its planned operations to New York and Boston.  United Airlines operates flights to Honolulu out of its hubs in Newark, N.J. and Washington while Delta Air Lines operates flights to Honolulu via Atlanta.

Below is a schedule for the service that ends on Sept. 7, 2021:

On Thursday, JetBlue added new routes to Los Angeles, New York and Boston from Miami. To retaliate against JetBlue’s network additions at American’s hub, the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier will resume flights to Boston, Los Angeles, and New York from JetBlue’s base in Fort Lauderdale.

Starting April 2, 2021, the Dallas-based carrier will commence service using its Boeing 737-800’s to the northeast and its A321neos twice daily to Los Angeles. The routes will be in addition to American’s current operations to Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia.  

Currently, the markets for these routes are highly competitive. Looking into the tentative schedule for April, American Airlines will be facing JetBlue’s five flights per day to Los Angeles in addition to daily flights by Spirit, Alaska, and Delta. On flights to Boston, American will be facing five flights per day by Jetblue to Boston with twice-daily flights by Spirit and daily flights by United and Delta. While some of the frequencies may be tentative, the competition will result in lower fares for American Airlines and lower yields.

American and JetBlue have, however, formed a northeast partnership to serve their bases in New York and Boston. The moves may be coordinated at retaliating against each other’s new additions suggesting that this isn’t part of their partnership.

Amid new route additions by JetBlue to Austin, American Airlines will bolster its presence in one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. via the addition of flights to Orlando. These flights will be on Saturdays from March 6, 2021, through April 3, 2021, and will be operated with an Embraer E175.  The short duration of the operation of this flight is to mainly service Spring Break demand. American Airlines will be competing with low-cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier on the route as well as JetBlue and Southwest.  

Among other routes, American Airlines is tentatively scheduled to start flights to Boston and San Jose, Calif. on March 4, 2021. Additionally, the Dallas-based carrier will be operating flights to San Jose del Cabo during the Spring Break period to service Spring Break demand. The flight to San Jose del Cabo is part of a broader strategy to focus on “sun and fun” destinations.

Recently, Austin has been the subject of route additions for many carriers. For example, Hawaiian Airlines will launch flights to Honolulu in April, while JetBlue will launch flights to San Francisco, Raleigh/Durham, and Cancun.

Below are the timings for the flights from Austin to Orlando:

The carrier will be launching flights from Long Beach, Calif. to Dallas beginning on April 2, 2021. The route will be operated daily using the Embraer E175. American Airlines also operates service to Phoenix from Long Beach. However, the flight will help connect Long Beach to more destinations on the east coast and in the southeast.  

This route is meant to counter Southwest’s route addition from Long Beach to Dallas Love Field AIrport. Currently, Southwest is scheduled to launch flights to Chicago; Honolulu; Houston; Reno, Nev. and St. Louis from the southern California airport.

Recently, Long Beach suffered a loss as JetBlue departed the airport in favor of Los Angeles International. It lost connections to the East Coast and regional connections to destinations like Austin; Bozeman, Mont. and Salt Lake City.  However, the routes by Southwest and American Airlines should help fill the void left by JetBlue.

Finally, American Airlines has scheduled flights to Fairbanks, Alaska that were previously supposed to be flown in 2020.  Fairbanks will receive service from Dallas and Chicago starting on May 6, 2021, and June 3, 2021, respectively. These flights will be operated with its next-gen A321 neos. American Airlines will face competition in United and Delta Airlines. United Airlines will operate a tag-on flight to its hub in Denver via Anchorage while Delta Airlines will operate flights to Seattle.

Meanwhile, American Airlines will resume flights from Phoenix to Anchorage starting on May 6, 2021. Currently, American Airlines is scheduled to fly from Anchorage to Chicago and Dallas. The only competition the route will face is its partner Alaska Airlines.

Alaska Airlines and American Airlines will cooperate on these routes to Alaska. Recently, Alaska Airlines announced new flights from Anchorage to Denver, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Ever since Winston was a toddler, he has always had a fascination for airplanes.From watching widebodies land at Washington Dulles to traveling the world, Winston has always had his eyes towards the skies.Winston began aviation photography in 2018 and now posts his photos occasionally on his Instagram account.He previously wrote for a blog.In his free time, Winston loves to play chess, do recreational activities, and watch sports.Looking into the future, Winston plans to service the aviation industry.

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