In 2021 and 2022, American Airlines was focused on turning Austin-Bergstrom Airport (AUS) into a focus city. While the airline previously primarily flew to American hubs from Austin, American’s network out of the city at one point grew to over three dozen destinations, ranging from Cancun, to Orange County, to Tampa.
In early 2024, we saw that growth reversed in a major way, as the airline started cutting flights to Austin. The Forth Worth-based carrier has now revealed additional route cuts from the city. Once implemented, American’s only domestic destinations out of Austin will be hubs.
American canceling most Austin routes
Over time, American has massively cut its routes to Austin, and with the latest schedule change, the airline has entirely abandoned the focus city strategy. Specifically, here are the American routes that have already been cut out of Austin, in chronological order:
- Bozeman (BZN) flights ended as of January 2024
- Cincinnati (CVG) flights ended as of January 2024
- Cozumel (CZM) flights ended as of January 2024
- Jacksonville (JAX) flights ended as of January 2024
- Memphis (MEM) flights ended as of January 2024
- Reno (RNO) flights ended as of January 2024
- Albuquerque (ABQ) flights ended as of February 2024
- Eagle-Vail (EGE) flights ended as of February 2024
- El Paso (ELP) flights ended as of February 2024
- Fort Myers (RSW) flights ended as of February 2024
- Kansas City (MCI) flights ended as of February 2024
- Oklahoma City (OKC) flights ended as of February 2024
- Sacramento (SMF) flights ended as of February 2024
- Tampa (TPA) flights ended as of February 2024
- Washington Dulles (IAD) flights ended as of February 2024
- Nassau (NAS) flights ended as of March 2024
- Punta Cana (PUJ) flights ended as of March 2024
- Liberia (LIR) flights ended as of April 2024
- Puerto Vallarta (PVR) flights ended as of April 2024
Now American is basically axing its remaining non-hub flights from Austin, as the following routes will be cut in the coming months, as flagged by @AdrianWaltz:
- Boston (BOS) flights will end as of November 2024
- Las Vegas (LAS) flights will end as of November 2024
- Nashville (BNA) flights will end as of November 2024
- Orlando (MCO) flights will end as of November 2024
- Raleigh (RDU) flights will end as of November 2024
- Orange County (SNA) flights will end as of January 2025
So, what service does that leave for American out of Austin? Once these cuts are implemented, American’s only domestic destinations out of Austin will be Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Philadelphia (PHL), and Phoenix (PHX). On top of that, American has two leisure routes to Mexico, to Cancun (CUN) and Los Cabos (SJD).
I think it’s safe to say that Austin is in no way a focus city for American anymore, as the airline only serves hubs domestically from there. Meanwhile American has point-to-point Mexico flying from all kinds of non-hub airports, so that’s not even unique to Austin.
Why is American pulling back so sharply from Austin?
I think there are a few things at play here, which are causing American to abandon Austin.
For one, I think American was betting on the future of Austin. For a while, Austin was one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, but that’s no longer the case. It’s still an attractive city to many, and it has a solid economy, but the growth has slowed tremendously. That’s particularly evident with real estate in the city, as Austin saw the biggest drop in home prices of any major city in the United States for the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023, and the situation hasn’t improved since then.
While real estate has cooled in many markets, Austin seems to be especially hard hit. Now, in fairness, it’s not that demand for air travel in Austin is down massively across the board. For example, while Virgin Atlantic has discontinued Austin flights, British Airways will offer double daily flights to Austin in the summer of 2025.
What do I make of American’s service cuts in Austin?
- Clearly American was banking on continued growth in Austin and wanted to get out ahead of the other major carriers, but that just hasn’t materialized the way the airline hoped
- Even as a focus city, Austin was heavily reliant on O&D traffic rather than connecting traffic, given that American’s Dallas hub is geographically quite close to Austin; so American doesn’t have as much geographic upside by focusing on Austin, unlike Delta, for example
- It’s my understanding that American was losing money on its Austin growth since the start, but then again, American is losing money on a lot of its flying; for that matter, it seems to be a similar story with Delta’s domestic growth in Seattle
- On some level, it seemed like American grew in Austin to try and prevent Delta from growing there, but it’s only worth losing money for so long; in the meantime, Delta has slowly but steadily increased its presence in Austin
- Much of American’s growth was with regional jets, as the airline had a lot of spare regional jets during the early part of the pandemic; when you combine issues with American’s scope clause, plus the need to allocate regional jets to other markets, it made American’s Austin expansion more challenging
- While I doubt this was American’s primary consideration, Austin Airport just isn’t big enough for the amount of traffic it has, making it hard for any airline to grow
- American just lacks any decent strategy, as this is only the carrier’s latest failed strategy; it’s no different than American attempting to turn Seattle into a long haul hub, trying to grow in New York, etc.
Bottom line
American Airlines has basically given up on having Austin as a focus city, as the airline cuts the last of its domestic non-hub routes out of Austin. With the latest schedule changes, American will only fly from Austin to hubs, as well as to two airports in Mexico.
I can’t say I’m surprised. Creating a profitable new focus city can be difficult, and obviously this wasn’t materializing as American had hoped.
What do you make of American’s route cuts in Austin?
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