American Airlines will begin a new push into the US West Coast from mid-June as it focuses on building up major connection centres at Los Angeles and San Jose.
Overall, the expansion will add 22 flight a day at Los Angeles, raising American's total operations there to 127 daily departures, and will add 13 flight at San Jose, for a daily total of 67 departures.
But as part of that restructuring, American will also discontinue eight routes at Reno and Las Vegas, where the airline says passenger loads have been "disappointing".
The cancellations will be a blow for former Reno Air employees: American acquired the regional carrier only last August and this effectively kills the Reno hub. After the changes, American will have just 11 daily flights at Reno, compared with the previous 28.
In addition to the build-up on the West Coast - which will include adding non-stop services from Los Angeles to Boston, Dallas Love Field, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Jose - American intends to give the region a "high priority" in terms of service differentiation.
To face off competition from United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, American's executives say they will ensure there is a "sharp contrast" in terms of service levels between the carriers.
American is in the process of removing 7,000 economy seats - 6.4% of its economy cabin capacity - from its entire fleet to give coach passengers more legroom. Pitch will be increased from 78cm (31in) and 81cm to between 86cm and 92cm.
Although that process will not be completed on the domestic fleet until late 2000, American intends to make sure that all of its aircraft serving routes between Boston and the West Coast will be completed by mid-June. The process will also include the carrier's international fleet.
"The new services build on the West Coast expansion we began last year and will give is a much stronger and more efficient West Coast network," says Mike Gunn, American's executive vice-president of marketing and planning.
Source: Airline Business
