American Airlines operates mainly under the legacy airline hub-and-spoke system. This means the airline has airports spread throughout the US, which serve as the main connecting points for the rest of its network. For example, if we want to fly on AA from Orlando to Cleveland, we’d have to connect at one of the hubs in Charlotte, Philadelphia or Chicago. The same goes for connecting to international flights, which only depart from the hub airports.
While the airline has hub cities, there are also other airports that have a large amount of American Airlines flights. The largest non-hub airport is Boston Logan, which the airline calls a “focus city.” While this means there’s a significant number of flights there, it also means the airline can unwind operations easier than at one of their hubs. Just ask Austin, TX.
American Airlines Unwinds Austin as a “focus city”
In 2021, American Airlines designated Austin-Bergstrom International Airport as a focus city and expanded its operations by adding mainline flights to Austin from larger non-hub airports and to smaller airports using American Eagle Embraer E175s. This expansion aimed to facilitate seamless connections through Austin.
The experiment didn’t last long. In November 2023, American Airlines announced that it was cutting almost all of its non-hub flights from Austin. Some of the only routes that remained included the ones that allowed me to fly from Orlando to Las Vegas in May of this year.
American Airlines just announced that both of those flights are now being eliminated. The last scheduled day for the non-stop flights to Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Orlando is Sunday, October 6. In addition, seasonal flights to Reno and Palm Springs will not return.
What’s Left At Austin For AA?
Most of what’s left for American Airlines in Austin are flights to its other hub cities. Besides that, there are flights to Cancun and Los Cabos in Mexico, Orange County, CA and the hub-ish Boston airport. There’s also one American Eagle flight to Nashville, which I’d imagine is still viable because of the country music industry in both cities.
In addition to those cities, if you want to fly to Austin on American Airlines, you will now require a connecting flight from one of their hub cities. And unlike Allegiant, which can use the closing of the South Terminal as the reason for pulling out of Austin, American Airlines has no excuse besides admitting that the massive expansion in 2021 was a strategic mistake. They will probably blame the costly mistake on a recently dismissed senior executive.
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