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American Airlines is the world’s largest passenger carrier in multiple respects. Significantly, it is also the US’s top airline for international flights, although only because of its strong presence in the Caribbean and Mexico in particular. Not surprisingly, it falls to third place, behind United and Delta, when long-haul activity is considered.
This article explores American’s international routes with the lowest seat load factors. It is the final installment to look at the US Big Three operators. The first article analyzed United’s results, followed by Delta’s. Separately, a US long-haul route with just a 41% load factor was explored recently.
American’s Ten Emptiest International Routes
Using traffic data from the US Department of Transportation, the following list is based on routes with at least 2,000 round-trip passengers in the 12 months to October 2025. This helps to remove any one-offs or other anomalies that distort the figures, with regular services being the focus.
American’s entries involve multiple hubs. However, it is notable that its busiest hub, 
Dallas/Fort Worth, did not feature. Its worst-performing international link in terms of load factor was Tampico. But at 68.3%, it was not quite low enough to have made the table.
The route, which covers 636 nautical miles (1,178 km) each way, only resumed in March 2025, having last been flown in 2009. Several routes mentioned below were also new or nearly new. They can take time to develop. Nonetheless, some results were very poor, including links that had been served for some time. How long until corrective action is taken, or the end announced?
|
Seat Load Factor*: November 2024-October 2025 |
Route |
Round-Trip Passengers** |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
|
44.2% |
New York JFK to St. Vincent |
2,583 |
The route began in December 2024. Served weekly during the winter |
|
54.9% |
New York JFK to Providenciales |
2,173 |
Served weekly during the winter |
|
56.0% |
Miami to South Caicos |
4,129 |
The route started in February 2025. Served twice-weekly |
|
57.2% |
Phoenix to Monterrey |
29,493 |
The route began in January 2023. Previously flown daily year round. Flights now run daily during the winter but five weekly in the summer |
|
58.0% |
Washington Reagan to Bermuda |
8,981 |
The route returned in April 2024. Flights ended in August 2025 |
|
59.8% |
Miami to Santiago de Cuba |
41,824 |
Flights operated five weekly in the examined period. However, they’ll jump to daily in June 2026 |
|
60.3% |
New York JFK to St. Lucia |
5,848 |
Served weekly during the winter |
|
61.3% |
Philadelphia to Barbados |
10,544 |
The route started in November 2024. Served weekly, more or less year round |
|
63.4% |
Charlotte to St. Vincent |
3,705 |
The route began in December 2024. Served weekly during the winter |
|
63.5% |
Miami to Varadero |
55,592 |
Served five weekly to daily year round |
|
* According to the US DOT. For context, American’s average international result was 84.4% |
** According to the US DOT |
American To South Caicos
Most of the ten routes involve the Caribbean. They include American’s new service from its Miami hub to South Caicos, in the Turks & Caicos. At 546 nautical miles (1,011 km) each way, it was only the oneworld member’s 22nd-shortest international route from its Florida hub.
American Eagle began the route in February 2025. Until then, South Caicos did not have international services. It was crying out for them, and Miami was the obvious choice. Flights continue to run twice-weekly on Envoy Air’s Embraer E175s.
Despite having 76 seats for sale each way, only an average of 43 seats were occupied, and some of those might have been by non-revenue-generating passengers. May and June were particularly poor months, with loads not exceeding 42.1%. Of course, it was the route’s first year, and any financial incentives or other risk-sharing agreements would have been factored in. Nonetheless, results will have to improve fast.
11 New Routes In 5 Days: Where Allegiant, American & Breeze Now Fly
Some of them have never been served before. Discover which.
What Was American’s Long-Haul Route With The Lowest Load?
Sticking with DOT data for the 12 months to October 2025, and a minimum of 2,000 passengers, shows that American’s average long-haul seat load factor was 84.6%. This was marginally above its overall international result (84.4%).
Surprisingly, the data source shows that New York JFK to London Heathrow was the worst-performing route in this sense. Only 71.9% of seats were filled. Of course, this figure is across all cabins, with the route renowned for its high-yielding nature due to having high premium demand. Fellow oneworld member and transatlantic joint venture partner British Airways filled 87.3% of seats on the same airport pair.
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