American Airlines may be busy developing its long-haul network, but it’s also making some changes to its domestic operations.
The Fort Worth-based carrier filed plans over the weekend to cut a domestic route and add four more, as first seen in Cirium plans and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.
American will depart the 667-mile route between Chicago and Columbia, South Carolina, beginning Jan. 8. 2025. The airline has operated this route since July 2023, so it seems that it can fill its 50-seat regional aircraft in this market.
Although Columbia will lose an important link to American’s Chicago hub, American will continue to fly to this station (where it is the largest carrier) from several other hubs, including Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
For locals trying to get to Chicago, United Airlines will be the only carrier serving Chicago onward — which may not be good news for fares in this market.
“As part of the ongoing evaluation of our network, American has made the difficult decision to discontinue service between Columbia, SC (CAE) and Chicago (ORD). American will continue to provide service from CAE to five US cities,” it said. the airline in a statement.
While the cuts will hurt locals, American is making exciting additions to other airports around the country.
It begins with a new daily year-round service from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio. This flight will take off on March 6, 2025, and American will enjoy independence on the route.
Interestingly, Spirit Airlines used to fly this route, but the low-cost carrier plans to discontinue it early next year. American seems to think that there is still enough demand to fill the Boeing 737-800 with 172 seats in the market, so we will see how the plane works from spring. (American last used this route from 2013 until April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic.)
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US Department of Transportation data analyzed by Cirium shows that, on average, about 150 daily passengers traveled on Spirit from LA to Columbus last year; the average total cost was $121.
About 130 daily passengers connect with other flights from LA to Columbus. Assuming these demand patterns are still there, the odds are in favor of Americans filling their jets.
Flights will depart LA at 9:20 am and arrive in Columbus at 4:55 pm They will return to Columbus at 5:45 pm and arrive at 7:30 pm.
“American is excited to welcome customers to our new nonstop service between Columbus and Los Angeles,” said Jordan Pack, American’s director of domestic network planning, in a statement. “Los Angeles joins a chain of eleven other non-stop locations from Columbus on American, giving customers convenient and robust access to our global network of more than 350 locations with just one stop.”
In addition to the new Columbus service, American will also add three limited-time domestic routes from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). These services will run throughout February during spring break.
The airline will fly from Boston to Orlando and Fort Myers, Florida, on Feb. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23.
Meanwhile, the carrier is adding additional flights in advance of the Super Bowl, which will be held in New Orleans next year. The airline will fly from Boston to New Orleans on Feb. 6 and 7, and will offer two flights back to Boston on Feb. 10.
While adding one-stop Super Bowl flights is common for US airlines, major carriers rarely add limited-time flights during high-demand periods. Perhaps America has excess domestic capacity in the winter that it wants to use wisely, or the water company may be testing the water to see if it can launch these routes for a longer period of time.
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