American adds 2 new ski routes, shuffles international service from NYC and Miami
The network planners at American Airlines have been busy making adjustments to the winter schedule.
Over the weekend, the Fort Worth-based carrier filed two new seasonal ski routes, shuffled international service from New York and boosted the airline's longest flight from Miami, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.
Changes for ski season 2022-2023
American is making some notable changes to its domestic network ahead of the ski season.
The airline will launch new service between Austin (AUS) and Vail/Eagle (EGE) beginning on Dec. 15. Regional affiliate SkyWest Airlines will fly a 65-seat CRJ-700 on the 835-mile route.
American will also add a new route from its Miami (MIA) hub to Jackson Hole (JAC) beginning on Dec. 15. The airline will deploy a 128-seat Airbus A319 on the route.
Both new routes will operate daily between Dec. 15 and Jan. 9, weekly between Jan. 10 and Feb. 15 and then daily between Feb. 16 and April 3.
American will also extend the season for its daily service between Los Angeles (LAX) and Bozeman (BZN). The airline will fly the route during the peak holiday period from Dec. 15 through Jan. 2 and then from Feb. 16 through April 3.
At the same time, the airline is canceling several routes that it was originally selling for the winter season, including:
- Philadelphia (PHL) — Vail/Eagle (EGE)
- New York (JFK) — Jackson Hole (JAC)
- Chicago (ORD) — Montrose (MTJ)
- Los Angeles (LAX) — Montrose (MTJ)
Perhaps most interesting is that American is continuing to expand in Austin, a city that's seen explosive growth from the carrier during the pandemic.
The airline unveiled two major tranches of network expansions in the Texas state capital last year. It started in March 2021 when the carrier doubled down on the city with 10 new routes. Three months later, American followed up with 14 additional new routes, including a mix of domestic and international destinations to cities in Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
The carrier has continued to add additional service from Austin in smaller network updates, and it also plans to open a brand-new Admirals Club in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Shuffling service at New York-JFK
Separately, American is making some notable adjustments to its international network from its hub at New York-JFK.
The airline is canceling service from JFK to Bogota (BOG) effective Nov. 3 due to "reduced demand," according to a statement from a carrier spokesperson. This route was originally added when the airline kicked off the Northeast Alliance with JetBlue back in mid-2021.
While American will no longer fly to Bogota from New York, the airline will continue serving the Colombian capital from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami.
In place of the Bogota route, the airline will launch new service from JFK to Mexico City (MEX) on Nov. 3. The carrier will deploy a 172-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the new daily flight.
The airline is seemingly hopeful that there'll be more demand to Mexico City than there was to Bogota. That said, American will face stiff competition on the 2,090-mile route: it'll go head-to-head with Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico, ultra-low-cost discounter VivaAerobus and Delta Air Lines.
Interestingly, American already canceled the two other new routes that it launched to Colombia as part of the Northeast Alliance. In May, the carrier announced plans to terminate service between New York-JFK and both Cali (CLO) and Medellin (MDE) in Colombia.
Israel gets a big boost
Finally, there's some good news for American's longest route from Miami. Starting on Oct. 29, the carrier will upgrade its MIA to Tel Aviv (TLV) flight to daily service.
The route first launched in June 2021 with a three-times-weekly frequency, and it's clearly performed well enough for American to now upgrade it to daily service.
However, the airline is downgauging the aircraft from a 273-seat Boeing 777-200 to a 234-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner when daily service commences in October.
For premium passengers, that'll mean 17 fewer business-class pods, but four additional premium economy recliners. All but four of American's 787-8 Dreamliners are outfitted with the Safran Concept D business-class product, which many flyers consider to be inferior to the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond ones that you can find on 28 of the airline's Boeing 777-200s. (The other 19 Boeing 777-200s feature the Concept D product.)
Before the pandemic, American hadn't flown to Tel Aviv since January 2016. Now, it serves Israel from two hubs — JFK and MIA; these routes were launched on May 6, 2021, and June 4, 2021, respectively.
The airline had plans to add a third Tel Aviv route, three times weekly from its DFW mega-hub on Nov. 1, 2021, but it was delayed multiple times before being scrapped altogether in May.
And now, American is now making up for some of the capacity it lost when it canceled plans to launch the DFW to Tel Aviv flight.
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