I agree that AA is going to continue to face heavy competition in the New York, Chicago and L.A. markets, and that DFW and Miami is where it makes its money.

Thinking more about Miami, for a moment, however, I wonder if there's any chance AA could use its legislative muscle to have another Wright Amendment-type law passed for the South Florida area. They could use most of the same arguments they used with respect to protecting DFW for Miami, as well. If AA were able to:

1) stop the expansion of Ft. Lauderdale and have a gate cap imposed there (as they have at Love Field);
2) get the federal government to agree to channel all future expansion through Miami International (as they have at DFW); and
3) obtain the right to master-lease retail space at MIA and sublease the space to tenants at a large mark-up (as they have in Terminals A & C at DFW);

they could end up turning MIA from a merely profitable hub into a real money-spinner!

I just don't know how much clout they have with the Florida congressional delegation--- it obviously takes a lot of "magic" to pull something like that off.