Originally Posted by austin_res

I assume you're being sarcastic, however I can see AA cutting ORD flights in the next few years. AA has been cutting ORD for the past decade - reducing frequencies and moving mainline flights to regional. AA is also losing share in international traffic - AA cut many flights to Europe and on ORD-NRT UA flies a 747 daily while AA flies a 777 less than daily. How does AA dominate O&D traffic at ORD? UA has always been bigger than AA in ORD and UA shows no signs of giving up ORD.

At CLT, US/AA dominate the market, which helps them maintain pricing power and in turn helps with profits. CLT also has low operating costs and better weather than ORD. At ORD, the competition is huge, not to mention it is congested and prone to weather delays. I would not be surprised if CLT is more profitable for AA than ORD. Since the merger, CLT has seen several new flights added, none for ORD.

As I have said before, Parker (through his past actions) made it clear he prefers to dominate a smaller market over competing with others in a bigger market.

Here is a wild idea: AA moves its ORD hub to CLE. AA gets a midwest hub it can dominate, UA gets ORD to itself, Cleveland keeps a hub - everyone's a winner