While Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) isn’t as important of a market for American as it was a few years back, the airline still has some positive passenger experience updates coming to this Texas airport. We first learned about these in March 2026, but there’s now an update, as American has shared some new renderings of a lounge that will eventually open.
American opening a new Admirals Club in Austin
American plans to open a new Admirals Club in Austin. The new Admirals Club will be 12,000 square feet and will be located on the west side of the terminal, nearly doubling the carrier’s current lounge footprint, which covers around 6,000 square feet.
Construction on the new lounge will begin this year, and the current lounge will remain open until the new lounge opens. While no opening date has been announced, I think it’ll realistically be late 2027 or 2028 before this new lounge opens, just based on how long these projects usually take.
The new Admirals Club will of course boast American’s new-style lounge design, which is currently only available at a limited number of airports. It’ll have views of downtown Austin and the airport, plus distinct zones for relaxing, dining, working, and recharging.
On top of that, the lounge will feature another cool amenity — it’ll have the first outdoor terrace space in the entire Admirals Club network. American describes this as a broader effort to reimagine the Admirals Club experience.
It’s great to see American investing in a new lounge in Austin. However, keep in mind that the airline isn’t nearly as ambitious at the airport as it was a few years ago. Coming out of the pandemic, American tried to turn Austin into more of a focus city, but ultimately the airline lost a lot of money on that growth, and decided to pull back. Now the airline once again primarily just serves hubs and focus cities from Austin.
In the meantime, Delta has continued expanding out of Austin, seemingly taking American’s place. While I’m not sure the growth is proving that profitable for Delta, ultimately the airline is more in need of a Texas focus city than American and United, which have among their biggest hubs in Dallas (DFW) and Houston (IAH), respectively.
Here’s how American Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden describes this:
“As we elevate our presence in Austin, we’re excited to bring a new level of comfort and hospitality to our customers. This new Admirals Club lounge will reflect the vibrant spirit of Austin while offering the thoughtful design and premium amenities our customers expect.”
I’m happy American is investing in its lounge network
It’s good to see American investing in its network of airport lounges, as we’ve seen lots of positive announcements lately. The catch is that so much of this work is only starting now, and therefore we’re going to have to be patient for another year or two (or maybe even three) before many of these changes come to life.
For example, there’s a brand new Flagship Lounge coming to Miami (MIA), plus a first-ever Flagship Lounge coming to Charlotte (CLT). No timeline has been provided for either lounge opening, though, so it’s anyone’s guess when either of those become a reality.
American notes how it’s investing in 12+ spaces that are expected to “open in the near future across all premium product offerings,” including Admirals Clubs, Provisions by Admirals Club facilities, joint premium check-in spaces, Flagship Lounges, Flagship Dining, and joint lounges.
Anyway, it’s all good stuff, I’m just impatient. 😉
Bottom line
American is set to open a new Admirals Club in Austin. The lounge will be roughly 12,000 square feet, with the first outdoor terrace in the network. This is obviously good news for Austin Airport as such, but beyond that, it’s great to see American trying new things with its lounge network, like outdoor terraces.
What do you make of American’s Admirals Club Austin plans?
To put an outdoor lounge in perspective, for 6 months of the year, Austin is hotter than Miami and just as humid. I don’t understand the the fascination airlines have with opening outdoor terraces in AUS. Delta is planning one for their new AUS club too
Delta's Club has had this feature for quite some time...
Attending the extremely hot Expo in Osaka last year made me realize not everywhere has the highly advanced umbrella, shade tree, cold beer, and patio mister technology we have developed here in Texas but let me assure you our patios are actually quite comfortable in the summer.
Spending $20 billion tax payers money on HVAC annually for deployed troops made me realize only Americans wastes a fortune developing and using "highly advanced umbrella, shade tree, cold beer, and patio mister technology".
But let me assure you our adversaries are actually quite comfortable in the desert summer.
Let me assure you that all those features did very little to overcome the brutal heat and humidity for me. Sitting out on a patio in Texas during summer … count me out.
All that technology didn't due to the late, unlamented Chase Sapphire ... thing at AUS any good.
Maybe AA should've built this first, while they were running their failed AUS focus city project. Feels like that would've brought in more flyers.
huh?
They already had announced a new club at that time (with two stories, if I recall). And AA was already the largest US3 carrier in AUS and they did bring in more flyers. A LOT more flyers.
The issue wasn't AUS as a failure, it was their pilot scope that prevented AA from using RJs to build AUS up and required far more mainline for the P2P so it no longer made economic...
huh?
They already had announced a new club at that time (with two stories, if I recall). And AA was already the largest US3 carrier in AUS and they did bring in more flyers. A LOT more flyers.
The issue wasn't AUS as a failure, it was their pilot scope that prevented AA from using RJs to build AUS up and required far more mainline for the P2P so it no longer made economic sense.
Delta doesn't have as much absolute RJ scope as AA does, but the Delta RJ scope doesn't restrict where those planes are used so Delta doesn't have the same issue in AUS that AA did contractually.
Lucky have you seen this?
“Cathay Pacific offers £20,000 Sydney to London flight amid disruption in Gulf.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/10/cathay-pacific-offers-20000-sydney-to-london-flight-amid-disruption-in-gulf
Aaron, There is a place for this type of post, and this isn’t it.
Send that news to Ben on his daily feedback forum.
FoulOwl, There is a time for this type of reply, and this isn't it.
Take a time machine back to March then send your reply.
I realize this is fully “old man yells at cloud” but…
I hope their “work zone” isn’t like the newly updated “bUsInEsS cEnTeR” at the AC in DFW terminal B. They recently ripped out the cubicles and put in weird high-back lounge chairs with little round tables the size of a postage stamp along the walls and one long work table in the center.
Aesthetically it’s nice and all, and those old cubes were BEAT...
I realize this is fully “old man yells at cloud” but…
I hope their “work zone” isn’t like the newly updated “bUsInEsS cEnTeR” at the AC in DFW terminal B. They recently ripped out the cubicles and put in weird high-back lounge chairs with little round tables the size of a postage stamp along the walls and one long work table in the center.
Aesthetically it’s nice and all, and those old cubes were BEAT UP but it provided a good semi-private work space for about 16 people. Now if the center table is occupied by the 6-8 people it fits there’s absolutely nowhere in that lounge to set out a laptop and work.
Someplace, somewhere, between AUS, ORD, and DCA, the Thot Leader is rock hard hearing this news
Thank you for properly referring to Him as “thot” leader… *wink*
Anyone have an insight as to what will happen with the existing space? Will United absorb it or will it become a credit card or contract lounge?
Will become a Delta One Lounge
I know that sounds like a joke, but it’s actually not
You mean a second Sky Club? Haven't seen any talk of a Delta One lounge coming to AUS.
I can't wait to sit out there in August when it's 105 degrees F...
And we can’t wait to watch you sit out there!
And we can’t wait to watch you watch @AaronP sit out there!
Your analysis of the Austin expansion misadventure fails to discuss the role played by the union contracts which didn't allow flexibility for regional flying from non-hubs. Once again, unions shoot themselves in the foot as parasites that undermine their host.
Love what's planned. But AA, please make up your mind about AUS. In, out, in, out......
Sometimes, ‘in, out, in, out’ is a good thing…