American adds 5 new routes, including longest from LaGuardia, and much more
American Airlines is making several big changes to its network.
The Fort Worth-based carrier filed plans over the weekend to launch five new routes, three of which are from its hub at New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA). The updates were first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.
American is also cutting one LaGuardia route, changing its wide-body deployment strategy and making several other changes.
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You'll find all the details below.
American adds 3 new LaGuardia routes
Headlining the updates is the addition of three new routes from LaGuardia.
American will start flying once-weekly Saturday-only service from LGA to:
- Bozeman, Montana
- Calgary, Alberta
- Kalispell, Montana
All of the new routes will take off on June 7, and operate through Aug. 30.
American will deploy a Boeing 737 MAX 8 on all of the routes, which features 16 first-class recliners, 24 Main Cabin Extra economy seats and 132 standard economy seats.
At 2,035 miles, the flight from LaGuardia to Kalispell will become the longest route from LGA. Currently, Delta's flight from LGA to Salt Lake City comes in as the longest LGA route, measuring 1,982 miles, according to Cirium schedules.
These routes are somewhat of a rarity for LaGuardia. That's because of the airport's "perimeter rule," which restricts airlines from flying to airports that are farther than 1,500 miles away with just two exceptions — flights to Denver and any route operated on Saturdays.
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All three of American's new routes are longer than 1,500 miles, but the airline is taking advantage of the Saturday exception to make the routes work.
(LaGuardia is also slot-constrained, meaning that airlines need special takeoff and landing permissions to operate flights there, but slots are not needed for flights on Saturdays.)
While several airlines have long tried to make Saturday-only service work from LaGuardia, they haven't necessarily been successful since flyers typically prefer more frequencies across more days. (Just look at how Delta and Spirit have pared back their LaGuardia routes.)
This time, however, American is clearly making a play for leisure travelers.
"In summer 2025, American will launch five new routes to help connect customers with their favorite outdoor destinations. From convenient access to breathtaking glaciers, awe-inspiring wildlife, and unique natural landscapes, travelers planning their New Year's resolutions will have more ways to enjoy the great outdoors from Nova Scotia to Montana," an American spokesperson shared in a statement.
American adds 2 more routes
Continuing with the leisure theme, American will also add two other Saturday-only routes for next summer.
The first, Chicago to Halifax, Nova Scotia, will take off on June 21 and operate through Oct. 4. The second, Dallas/Fort Worth to Quebec, will operate from Aug. 9 through Nov. 1.
Both of these routes will be operated by the Embraer E175 regional jet. In fact, the flight from Dallas will become American's longest operated by an E175. (It measures 1,655 miles and will take roughly four hours.)
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American cuts 1 LaGuardia route
While American is making exciting leisure additions across its network, it is coming at the expense of one route: the short regional hop from LaGuardia to Philadelphia.
The route will end effective June 5.
American confirmed the cut with the following statement:
As part of a continuous evaluation of our network, American will discontinue service between New York (LGA) and Philadelphia (PHL). Customers will continue to have access to more than 85 destinations from New York, including new service to outdoor leisure destinations starting in 2025. We're proactively reaching out to impacted customers with alternate travel arrangements.
While this short route connects two American hubs, several aviation observers have long considered it to be "slot squatting."
LaGuardia is a slot-controlled airport, meaning the number of daily departures and arrivals is capped via slots. These slots are typically distributed on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, so airlines must use all the slots in their portfolio or risk losing them to a competitor.
During peak periods, airline schedules are optimized to efficiently use all the slots in their portfolio. However, during weaker demand periods, airlines sometimes find lower-cost regional flights to "slot squat." Instead of selling or abandoning a valuable slot, carriers will fill their schedule during weaker demand seasons with cheaper regional operations to utilize all their slots.
In this case, it's possible that American has found a better use for its LaGuardia slot than flying to Philly.
American's delayed wide-body jets
American's upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries have once again been delayed, requiring the carrier to adjust its upcoming wide-body schedule for the spring 2025 season.
As part of this weekend's schedule load, American will delay the restart of Chicago to Paris from April to May. The airline will also reduce service from three to two daily frequencies between Miami and Buenos Aires in April and temporarily suspend service between Miami and Paris in May.
American is not cutting service to any destinations as part of this adjustment.
"As a result of ongoing Boeing 787 delivery delays, American is adjusting service on certain routes in spring 2025 to ensure we are able to re-accommodate customers on affected flights. We'll be proactively reaching out to our impacted customers to offer alternate travel arrangements and remain committed to mitigating the impact of these Boeing delays while continuing to offer a comprehensive global network," said American in a statement.
If it's any consolation, American will extend the season for its service between Chicago and Barcelona. The route was originally supposed to end around Labor Day Weekend, but it'll now operate through October.
American said that it was able to accommodate this additional flying "as part of an optimization of our network and fleet."
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