Yesterday United Airlines revealed how they’re more or less abandoning NYC for now (including LaGuardia and Newark), and now American Airlines has revealed how they’re drastically reducing NYC flying.
They’ll be offering 13 daily flights to three NYC area airports combined, when last year they offered over 270 daily flights over the same period.
In this post:
American Airlines hugely reduces NYC flying
American Airlines has announced plans to operate a very limited number of flights to the NYC area between April 7 and May 6, 2020:
- All flights will operate between 10AM and 6PM
- NYC-based crews won’t be operating these flights
- All crews will be operating direct turns, so that no one has to overnight in the NYC area
- There will be seat blocking to ensure social distancing
As American Airlines describes it, this decision comes as the NYC area has been hit especially hard with COVID-19 cases, causing demand for flights to rapidly evaporate.
American will operate three daily flights to JFK
Going forward, American will operate just three daily flights from JFK, to the following hubs:
- 1x daily to Charlotte
- 1x daily to Dallas
- 1x daily to Miami
That’s it. This also means that American Airlines is suspending their premium A321T service between New York JFK and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Wow. We won’t even see a single daily American flight in those markets anymore.
As a point of comparison, American had an average of 80 daily departures from JFK at the same time last year.
American will operate eight daily flights to LGA
Going forward, American will operate just eight daily flights from LGA, to the following six airports:
- 2x daily to Charlotte
- 2x daily to Dallas
- 1x daily to Boston
- 1x daily to Chicago
- 1x daily to Miami
- 1x daily to Washington DCA
As a point of comparison, American had an average of 170 daily departures from LGA at the same time last year.
American will operate two daily flights to EWR
Going forward, American will operate just two daily flights from EWR, to the following hubs:
- 1x daily to Charlotte
- 1x daily to Dallas
Note that for a couple of days American will operate flights to Chicago still, as those flights will be suspended on April 9.
As a point of comparison, American had an average of 21 daily departures from EWR at the same time last year.
Bottom line
These reductions don’t come as much of a surprise, as American Airlines will operate just over a dozen daily flights to the NYC area. What used to be one of the most congested airspaces in the world is now more or less empty.
Are you surprised by the extent to which American is reducing NYC service?
You know, I'm a New Yorker and I don't think it's such a bad thing not to have any NY crews. Just sayin'.
@Sam - I was booked on a return ticket from ATL-LGA on AA with the outbound this past Friday and the Return on Monday (yesterday). AA canceled my ticket, so I'm sure the flights aren't operating :)
There is only ever one DFW-JFK flight daily anyway...sometimes two. Most are to LGA.
@Sam - the source is the airline itself, what more do you need?
@Sam thank you for the advice. AA refunded the ticket with no questions asked. And hold time
was less than 3 minutes.
Not suprised ! who wants to travel to NYC right now ! Not I
I still don't know of any source for these flight changes, but AA has removed the LGA-ATL nonstops for today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Thursday onward still has the flight. They must be working through the schedules day-by-day, perhaps in order to prevent overwhelming the reservations system.
@KT You can request a refund to your original form of payment on their website (https://prefunds.aa.com/refunds/). I would wait until the end of the day tomorrow to see if the flight is back on before requesting, since AA seems to be making tons of changes to their NYC schedules today. It is possible that you get a refund and then a few weeks later the flight appears back on the schedule, since they are making...
@KT You can request a refund to your original form of payment on their website (https://prefunds.aa.com/refunds/). I would wait until the end of the day tomorrow to see if the flight is back on before requesting, since AA seems to be making tons of changes to their NYC schedules today. It is possible that you get a refund and then a few weeks later the flight appears back on the schedule, since they are making so many changes at once. If you need to speak with an agent, I would wait until much closer to the flight date, given the rapid schedule changes.
It appears this schedule change lasts longer than May 6th. I'm booked (was booked) on a JFK-SFO flight on May 28th, in First. Just checked, and my flight has been changed to JFK-CLT-SFO.
Does this warrant a full cash refund, if I request it, as the original flight has been cancelled?
Finally mentioning this because I've seen it on multiple articles and something seems off - is "hugely reduced" a real phrase? Sure, it might check out in google translate but I've never seen this anywhere else, likely because there are multiple more accepted ways of writing the thought:
Drastically reduced - yes
Radically reduced - yes
Greatly reduced - yes, slightly different implication
Largely reduced - yes, even more different implication
...
Finally mentioning this because I've seen it on multiple articles and something seems off - is "hugely reduced" a real phrase? Sure, it might check out in google translate but I've never seen this anywhere else, likely because there are multiple more accepted ways of writing the thought:
Drastically reduced - yes
Radically reduced - yes
Greatly reduced - yes, slightly different implication
Largely reduced - yes, even more different implication
Massively reduced - rarely seen this
Hugely reduced - never seen outside this blog, ever
The boredom of self quarantine has lowered me to grammar-picking, sorry...
It should be telling which hubs AA selected. While these are their most profitable hubs, if you're living in PHX, ORD, or PHL, if times stay tough or get tough again and further de-hubbing happens, we know which hubs will be on the chopping block.
LGA-ATL daily flights are still listed in flight searches for tomorrow and later on. Do you have a source for this that says LGA-ATL is not operating?
Yes, but seems necessary.