American Airlines Cutting Capacity This Summer

What a basic lesson in leader ship.
Breaking news from the Wall Street Journal. “American to reduce domestic and international travel. Southwest airlines CEO plans to take a pay cut”.
I do not blame American for cutting. It makes good business sense. But how ironic is it that 3 DUI Doug stays silent while the Southwest chairman takes a leadership role for his employees.
American will truly never change with the leader ship they have at the top.

@Dublin - Doug’s pay is directly related to the stock price (he doesn’t actually get a salary). He is absolutely taking a pay cut. 51% vs last year as of yesterday to be exact.

Has Delta published a list of specific routes yet?

My wife and I are supposed to go to Aruba tomorrow. Are there any specific dangers of AA just cutting routes while we are gone? It appears Delta this morning just did some immediate cutting and trimming and not just to hot spot regions. Any advice is appreciated.

Cuts like this will ripple through the economy since less flying means less money and/or jobs for employees. And that means people buying less stuff which leads to lower earnings. Hopefully by the fall things will be close to normal, if not, the stock market as well as the housing market will be hurting.

Jobs can be fleeting and nothing is guaranteed, hopefully people have learned lessons over the years and managed to save money in an emergency fund by living below your means but the typical American usually fails at that.

How times have changed..

From Doug Parker on September 28, 2017, 12:29 PM MST

American Airlines CEO: We'll Never Lose Money Again!

I actually think Delta and United are in worse shape. Delta is doing huge cuts and their main partner Korean Air may go out of business if this keeps up. United is heavily exposed in China. Also, American has more cash on hand than the other 2 (8 billion - I think UA is 6 billion and Delta is 2 billion). I'm first to always criticize American but Doug has been through many highs and lows of the airlines. His penny pinching has allowed American to not have to take as draconian measures yet as some others (Delta cutting 25% international!) I'll give credit where credit due. It's easy to spend lavishly when the times are good but the lows can be really hard if not prepared.

Interesting they are not cutting new routes that are due to launch this summer, like ORD-KRK.

Those flights 3X weekly between DFW and HKG will be packed.

Dan - AA has more debt and planes that aren't paid off.

I have a DFW-HKG flight in early October, have just called the Exec Plat line and they are like deer in the headlights. They are still showing daily flights and nobody knows anything about this announcement on their website

@rich - the airlines are reacting to cuts in demand, not driving reduced supply. If people aren't booking, the airlines can't afford to keep flying empty planes. My employer is the second largest purchaser of airline flights in the country (federal government is first). They restricted non-essential domestic and international travel a few weeks ago and the restrictions have since gotten tighter, now restricting some travel that was previously considered essential. Federal government employees (some of whom are my neighbors) are seeing similar restrictions.

@VitaliU I have a DFW HKG flight Sep 1 and customers service call back time is more than 2 hours . Sounds like a waist of time.

i'm 200% in favor of relaxed slot/route-authority usage rules. the last thing we need is a bunch of completely empty planes blasting out greenhouse gases for the sake of rules that should only be applicable during normal times.

Nothing on the AA website regarding China suspensions.

I have PVG-DFW booked for May 11 and the reservation is still there, with only a slight schedule change.

@VitaliU -- Same here. I'm booked DFW-PVG at the end of June and no one at the Exec Plat desk knows whats going on. I think the announcement hasn't made its way thru the system as all the flights to China are still showing bookable and not zero'd out yet.

D3KingAmerican -- Wait time is not 2 hours if you call the Exec Plat desk. You should also try calling Aussie/Fiji offices via Skype

I have a flight on Jun 7 from DFW-HGK and it is still showing as on schedule.

American is hoping for some slot waivers...

Nice picture in the article's body but I didn't realize that AA was flying A350s.

Any idea which days the DFW-HKG-DFW flights will go if 3x weekly? Booked on award J class in August and limited availability so would like to switch now vs wait weeks or months for AA to update inventory. They should update before public announcements as the CS agents have no clue what’s happening.

@Vitaliu - I have a flight HKK-HKG-LAX in F on September 24 and no flight notifications or changes. Not in the mood to call EX desk at this point. Flying the opposite route on Cathay September 18 and no news on the Cathay side.

once the new DFW HKG loads have been scheduled I will update.

Already downgauging JFK-LHR flights from 773 to 772 as well. For their most profitable market, that’s a big deal

Just got an email from AA. They said my flight to Hong Kong will be canceled and they will update my ticket on the 15th

Update : American has loaded the 3X daily schedule for DFW HKG

DFW HKG will be Sunday , Monday , and Friday.

Update: American removed my HKG-LAX segment on 9/24 but left my HKK-HKG with Cathay in tact. No email notification and a message to call a representative on the change in schedule. Again, all things considered, I'll call them in a few weeks. Surprised that they did not send an email as I had to see the deleted flight on AA to deduce what had changed.