American Airlines adds new domestic destination in Southern California

American Airlines is growing its domestic operation with the addition of a new destination.

The carrier will add service to McClellan-Palomar Airport (CLD) in Carlsbad, California, beginning Feb. 13, 2025. American's regional affiliate Envoy Air will operate twice-daily flights to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), marketed as American Eagle service.

The regional affiliate will deploy a 76-seat Embraer 175 on the route, equipped with 12 first-class recliners, 20 Main Cabin Extra extra-legroom seats and 44 standard economy seats.

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Carlsbad is home to the Legoland California theme park and sits about 35 miles north of San Diego International Airport (SAN), which already sees plenty of American Airlines service. The new route will provide travelers based in the northern San Diego suburbs with new travel options without driving to SAN or the far larger Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

In a statement confirming the move, the airline said, "American looks forward to connecting Carlsbad to our comprehensive global network starting next February. This new service will provide convenient one-stop connections to destinations across the United States and Mexico while bringing travelers from around the world to see all that Carlsbad has to offer."

American operates a hub in Phoenix, and from there, travelers can enjoy one-stop service to most major cities in the U.S. and Mexico.

For much of the past decade, Carlsbad hasn't had any scheduled commercial airline service. The airport is served by regional air carrier JSX, which operates 30-seat Embraer regional jets in the public charter model. JSX flies from Carlsbad to Las Vegas and Scottsdale, Arizona.

But the last time that Carlsbad had commercial service was in April 2015, when United Express' affiliate SkyWest Airlines flew from the city to Los Angeles — a short 86-mile flight operated by the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia turboprop aircraft, Cirium schedules show.

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To support the new American flights, McClellan-Palomar Airport will contract with the Transportation Security Administration to provide security services for departing passengers.

"We are thrilled to be able to offer this new service to the traveling public and look forward to working with American Airlines as one of our newest stakeholders," said airport director Jamie Abbott in a statement.

For its part, American's recent network strategy has been focused on boosting domestic and short-haul connectivity. The airline dominates in many domestic markets and continues to grow across the country with new routes and destinations. Last week, American announced new service to South Caicos, Turks and Caicos, and it added two more domestic routes from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA).

American has long said that it wants to offer the most comprehensive schedule for domestic travelers looking to connect to a broad network via its hubs — and that's what the airline seems to be doing in Carlsbad with the new service to Phoenix.

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