American Airlines is trimming back its schedule with a number of route cuts that particularly hit New York City hard.
American Airlines Cuts 27 Routes In 2022, Including 18 From New York City
As reported by Zach Griff at The Points Guy, American Airlines has loaded 27 route cuts into its 2022 schedule, including 18 touching either New York Kennedy or LaGuardia airports. It will also suspend all service to Ottawa, Canada, the only market American is completely leaving. Other cuts will pare back service, but American Airlines will continue to offer service via a different hub(s).
The reductions in New York undermine the argument that the new JetBlue – American Airlines alliance will be good consumers, though JetBlue will operate 10 of the 18 routes being cut (full list below). The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to block the deal and these route cuts bolster that lawsuit, not undermine it, even if American argues that it is going deeper not wider by bolstering other markets with additional frequencies.
That lawsuit will continue to play out in 2022, but for now these are the route cancellations you should be aware of:
Full List Of 2022 American Airlines Route Cancellations
- Boston (BOS)
- Raleigh (RDU) – ends January 4, 2022
- Charlotte (CLT)
- Champaign/Urbana, Illinois (CMI) – ends April 5, 2022
- Toledo, Ohio (TOL) – ends April 5, 2022
- Chicago (ORD)
- Charlottesville, Virginia (CHO) – ends April 5, 2022
- New York Kennedy (JFK)
- Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR) – ends April 5, 2022
- San Antonio (SAT) – ends January 4, 2022
- San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) – ends April 5, 2022
- Montreal (YUL) – ends January 4, 2022
- Toronto (YYZ) – ends January 4, 2022
- New York LaGuardia (LGA)
- Nantucket, Massachusetts (ACK) – ends June 17, 2022
- Asheville, North Carolina (AVL) – ends march 27, 2022
- Bangor, Maine (BGR) – ends January 4, 2022
- Boston (BOS) – ends January 4, 2022
- Charleston, South Carolina (CHS) – ends January 4, 2022
- Orlando (MCO) – ends January 4, 2022
- Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts (MVY) – ends June 17, 2022
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (MYR) – ends June 2, 2022
- Philadelphia (PHL) – ends January 4, 2022
- Pensacola (PNS) – ends May 5, 2022
- Portland, Maine (PWM) – ends January 4, 2022
- Savannah, Georgia (SAV) – ends June 3, 2022
- Traverse City, Michigan (TVC) – ends June 2, 2022
- Philadelphia (PHL)
- Baltimore (BWI) – ends April 5, 2022
- Charleston, West Virginia (CRW) – ends April 5, 2022
- Ottawa (YOW) – ends April 5, 2022
- Phoenix (PHX)
- Calgary (YYC) – ends April 5, 2022
- Vancouver (YVR) – ends April 5, 2022
American’s substantial drawback in Canada reflects its lack of a Canadian partner. Air Canada partners with United Airlines while WestJet partners with Delta. Still, Delta has also pulled completely out of Ottawa and been slow to reinstate Canada service after a prolonged shutdown of the US-Canadian border.
CONCLUSION
The route cuts are not as deep as they appear if the JetBlue partnership continues. Even so, American Airlines has struggled finding the right balance in New York City, as this latest shuffle highlights.
image: American Airlines
It feels like LGA-PHL is needed even if it doesn’t turn a profit. Having two disconnected hubs so close together just doesn’t feel right.
I agree. LGA-PHL is important because ther are a number of European cities that are not served out of NYC such as Amsterdam and Athens.
I’ve taken this flight before and also believe it is a necessary add-on since CLT or ORD do not offer comparable service and DFW is a bit out of the way.
American flies from JFK to Athens. Seasonally. They started this summer and it’s returning next summer. The fact that AA is willing to close this route tells me that either nyc-originating traffic isn’t necessary to make PHL
Work, or that they’d rather have you transit via LHR if you want to stay in the AA ecosystem
It’s kind of funny that a Philadelphia to Baltimore flight even exists!
“This is your captain. I’d like to welcome everyone on board and also let you know we’ll be beginning our descent.”
That is actually a thing. I have taken the flight, as if you live in DC it’s worth the connection. Wheels up and the Captain does actually announce, “Flight Attendants, prepare for landing.” My record on it was around 14 minutes.
The issue is that for most of us we use DCA. It’s practical for that given traffic through the DMV if connecting. However, a significant portion of passengers at BWI originate in the northern suburbs of Baltimore or Lancaster, PA region. Making connecting in PHL absurd.
I should add, this flight has been around for decades. At one time USAir actually ran 3-4 of them a day to BWI. Often on a 737.
ORD-MKE is a very similar vibe. The “We’ve reached our cruising altitude” and the “We’ve begun our descent” announcements are the same announcement.
Check out ABE or MDT to PHL, both are less than 20 minutes in the air.
They can’t even sustain LGA-MCO?
Spirit came in and beat them on price, service, and hard product.
LOL. Apparently so.
Thanks for the specific mention of my hometown of Ottawa. The decrease in DL and AA service is not just post-Covid but rather the end of a steady decline over a number of years to the point where they just had one or two CRJ-200s or ERJ-145s a day, which wasn’t a meaningful presence, so it’s not surprising they have eliminated service entirely rather than try to build it back after a year and a half. YOW only regained international flights a couple weeks ago as the government’s Covid policy had previously restricted international flights to only YUL, YYZ, YYC and YVR.
As of now we have just one daily UA CRJ-200 flight to IAD, but starting in April it seems they will have 3xIAD and 3xORD, which gives me hope as a 10+ year 1K member.
None of AC’s transborder service (to DCA, BOS and EWR) is scheduled to come back until May.
So anyway, definitely not a surprise that AA pulled out of (or rather decided not to return to) Ottawa.
Hilarious given TPG has included without fail in every AA article for the past three months how great the northeast alliance is for consumers
I’m in total surprise about YOW-PHL because I flew that route often and those E-140/45 were full all the time. My concern was that AA, nor DL tried to offer J class on their routes while UA had one or all flights with two class service. AA made a mistake to pull off the codeshare with WS… No ONeWorld carrier is serving YOW only the arrogant AC, the clueless WS, Banana Vacation airlines and low-cost carriers…because the horrible government is pushing people to fly out of YUL… But I NEVER use that horrible arrogant airport, I prefer fly through YYZ… I hope AA will do something with Porter Airlines.
Porter is investing $65m in YOW. Hopefully AA comes back or even perhaps JB.