Update: American Airlines has now cancelled many routes through summer 2020 and beyond.
This doesn’t come as any sort of a surprise, really, but today American has announced additional schedule adjustments in response to reduced travel demand.
American Airlines’ capacity reductions
With these latest capacity cuts, American Airlines is:
- Reducing international capacity for the summer peak by 10%, including a 55% cut in transpacific capacity
- Reducing domestic capacity by 7.5% in April
What routes is American canceling, suspending, and adjusting?
American Airlines Asia service reductions
American Airlines is greatly reducing service to Asia this summer, beyond the current route suspensions. Specifically, American is:
- Suspending service to mainland China and Hong Kong from Los Angeles through October 24, 2020
- Suspending service to mainland China from Dallas-Fort Worth through October 24, 2020
- Suspending service to Hong Kong from Dallas-Forth Worth through July 2, 2020; in July the route will resume 3x weekly, and it will operate daily as of October 24, 2020
- Extending the suspension of service to Seoul from Dallas through May 2, 2020, with the route being downgraded from a 787-9 to a 787-8
- Flights to Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda will be operated by smaller wide body aircraft starting in May, including 787-8s and 787-9s
American will use smaller planes for some Asia routes
American Airlines Europe service reductions
We’re also seeing significant reductions to capacity in Europe. I imagine we could see even further reductions, given the US travel ban for Europe. American is:
- Suspending service to Rome from Philadelphia effective immediately, through April 24, 2020
- Extending the suspension of service to Milan, and suspending flights to Rome from Chicago and Charlotte through June 4, 2020
- Delaying seasonal resumption of flights to Barcelona from Charlotte, and to Venice from Chicago, to June 4, 2020
- Delaying seasonal resumptions of flights to Barcelona from Charlotte, and to Venice from Chicago, to June 4, 2020
- Delaying seasonal resumption of flights to Rome from New York, and to Rome from Dallas, through April 24, 2020
- Suspending a second daily summer flight to Rome from Dallas-Fort Worth
Several routes to Europe are being suspended
American Airlines South America service reductions
American is even reducing service to South America:
- Flights to Montevideo from Miami will become seasonal, ending May 8 and resuming December 18, 2020
- Flights to Santiago from Dallas-Fort Worth will be suspended through May 7, 2020
American is suspending some South America flights as well
Wide bodies coming to more domestic flights
Wide body aircraft will be deployed on key domestic routes in American’s network, and American will introduce a new seasonal service between Chicago and Honolulu this summer, using a Boeing 787-9.
More cuts could be coming with slot waivers
American Airlines notes that these capacity reductions assume that the airline isn’t granted any slot waivers. Specifically, some airports are heavily slot restricted, and have a “use it or lose it” policy, meaning that you lose your airport slots if you don’t fly a route.
That’s why we’re not seeing American cut any flights to London Heathrow, Tokyo Haneda, etc.
American has requested temporary relief from these requirements, to better align capacity with demand, without risking losing valuable takeoff and landing slots. If any of those waivers are granted, we can expect more cuts in some key markets.
American is hoping for some slot waivers
Bottom line
None of these capacity cuts come as much of a surprise, and if anything, American isn’t being as drastic as some other airlines. Assuming they’re granted slot waivers for Heathrow and Haneda, I expect we’ll see some more cuts there as well.
What do you make of American’s capacity reductions?
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