In the airline business, as in other industries, certain facts are consistent, as they are across all profit-seeking enterprises. And American Airlines AAL is currently navigating a couple of them.
Among these truths is the inescapable certainty that in order to thrive, a business must be engaged in practices that prioritize serving the highest possible consumer demand.
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Another reality for companies striving for success is the importance of careful communication with the public.
Both of these principles have found their way into the spotlight in an observation currently gathering attention about an American Airlines scheduling matter:
- First, consumer demand is apparently down at one important U.S. airport.
- Second, some flight information has found its way into the public domain, and it has some experts confused about what is going on.
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Why travel experts are guessing about American Airlines' plans
One post on X (formerly Twitter), by Adrian Waltz — a self-described fan of travel, the airline industry and flight pricing — revealed a document from Cirium's Diio Mi that listed some regular American Airlines flights out of Austin, Texas.
Importantly, there were several notes on the flights in the document that indicated a large number of routes from Austin were to be removed during the first few months of 2024, including Bozeman, Mont.; Cincinnati; Memphis and the Punta Cana Airport in the Dominican Republic.
"By my count they have 46 routes now and this would cut it to 25," wrote Enilria, an airline-and-travel news site. "This also makes sense because we know the Austin (AUS) hub is god awful in terms of financial performance. American also has been trimming it already. So it all makes sense that they would make this big change going into a weak year and ditching this hub a little too close to Dallas DFW."
But experts are puzzling over a detail from this document that conflicts with information from another data source.
"There's only one problem. The routes we checked are still for sale on aa.com," wrote Enilria. "So, what does that mean?"
"I am betting there is a big reduction, just that they rolled it back temporarily or it's not quite as big as this made it appear," the publication continued. "Either way my money is on the battle of Austin (AUS), which has caused horrible financial losses, cooling off as we head into a year where airlines need to improve results to offset falling demand."
Another expert offers some background
View From the Wing's Gary Leff also examined this data and explained a few other factors about Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to be considered.
"Delta DAL had announced it as a focus city, but was slow in building its operation there," Leff wrote. "Austin and Raleigh are Delta's only remaining focus cities and Delta is finally building modestly in Austin."
The airport in Austin is also apparently challenged by availability of gates.
"Austin's airport is heavily gate-constrained. Despite adding 37% more gates in 2018, common use gates are fully utilized," Leff wrote. "They're building 3 new gates as part of a 'West Gate Expansion' that should complete in 2026, but those gates merely allow taking 3 other gates offline to build a connector to a planned new midfield concourse."
"And the main terminal will have to accommodate Frontier ULCC and Allegiant ALGT, which are being displaced from the airport’s low cost terminal, which will be torn down as part of concourse expansion plans," he added. "The new concourse is still in pre-design, so net gate growth won't occur until the 2030s."
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