American adds new routes, flights in biggest-ever Caribbean boost

American Airlines is betting that your winter vacation plans will include a tropical destination.

The Fort Worth-based carrier on Wednesday announced its largest-ever schedule to the Caribbean and Latin America for the upcoming winter season.

American is adding two new flights to Cancun and is boosting service on 23 existing routes, including to its newest destination, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.

Here are the details.

2 new routes to Cancun

American is launching two unique flights to Cancun on Dec. 9. The first will be from Cincinnati, and the other will be from Nashville.

These flights will operate once weekly on Saturdays, and they're unique in that they'll operate as point-to-point service.

Most of American's flights operate to or from a hub, which helps the airline boost loads by funneling connections onto these flights. However, the new services from Cincinnati and Nashville will primarily attract locals looking for some fun in the sun this winter.

American will operate both flights using mainline Boeing 737-800 aircraft with seats for 172 passengers.

American will go up against a mix of Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Mexican budget carrier Viva Aerobus on these two new routes. (American operated flights from Nashville to Cancun between March 2016 and January 2019, Cirium schedules show.)

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In recent months, American has been busy boosting its presence at key hubs, moving away from some of its point-to-point flying (save for Austin). These recent additions are bucking that trend, but once-weekly Saturday flights are hardly an indicator of a strategy pivot.

23 flights with expanded service

In addition to the new service to Cancun, American is boosting 23 existing flights with expanded service.

You'll find the majority of the changes listed below, but highlights include twice-daily flights to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

American just launched this route from Miami earlier this month, and it's seemingly already performing well enough to add more flights. Tortola is a new destination for American's network (it last served the airport a decade ago) and for the Miami airport.

Nearly half of the boosted routes are from Charlotte, where American recently teased plans to expand to 800 daily flights from its hub there. In total, American will offer 40% more seats from Charlotte to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America compared to winter 2022.

Meanwhile, at the airline's megahub in Dallas-Fort Worth, travelers can expect a big Mexico-focused expansion, with more than 50 daily departures to the country.

Bottom line

Thanks to its hubs in Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, American has long had a stronghold in the market for flights from the U.S. to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Now, the airline is building on that with more than 2,250 peak weekly flights to 90 destinations in the region for this upcoming winter season.

So, if you're already thinking about a winter escape, American likely has a flight for you.

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