American Airlines will continue to shrink its network at Boston and New York John F Kennedy airports this winter, as it trims underperforming flying in an effort to boost fares.
The Oneworld Alliance carrier will end service between New York JFK and Denver on 3 November, and between Boston and Pittsburgh on 18 December, FlightGlobal schedules data shows. It operates JFK-Denver once daily with a Boeing 737-800 and Boston-Pittsburgh up to thrice daily with an Embraer ERJ-140.
Both routes were underperforming and not meeting expectations, says American.
"In this environment, we have to make sure we use our assets in the best possible way," the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier says.
In July, American announced plans to cull underperforming flying from its second half schedules in response to high fuel costs. It has reduced its full year capacity growth plans by half a percentage point, with 2018 capacity now expected to increase 2.2%.
Other suspended routes include service between Miami and Washington Dulles, which will end on 19 December.
American will focus growth at its Charlotte and Dallas/Fort Worth hubs into 2019, with some of that "funded" by cuts elsewhere in its system, airline president Robert Isom said in July.
Boston and New York JFK have both seen their share of cuts in recent years. American has ended service to Buffalo and Paris Charles de Gaulle from Boston, and to Manchester (UK), Providenciales, San Juan, Tucson and Zurich from JFK in 2018 alone, schedules show.
Despite these network cuts, the airline's capacity in Boston is scheduled to increase 6.3% year-over-year in 2018. Its JFK capacity will shrink by 3.6% this year, the data shows.
Both airports saw capacity reductions in 2017, down 1.2% at Boston and 6.2% at JFK, according to schedules.
Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways will continue to serve both the Boston-Pittsburgh and JFK-Denver routes.
Separately, American plans to add two new regional routes to its network from November. It will begin new daily service to Cheyenne, Wyoming – a new destination – from Dallas/Fort Worth on 4 November, and Saturday-only service to New Haven from Charlotte on 22 December. Both routes will be served with 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft.
No other airlines serve either the Dallas/Fort Worth-Cheyenne or Charlotte-New Haven routes, schedules show.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
