Originally Posted by
ESpen36
No; Santa Cruz was a tech stop. The origin, La Paz (El Alto Airport), is so high (13,325 ft) that even the 757 cannot take off with enough fuel to make it back to MIA. So, the bird took off with a minimal fuel load, then made a stop at the much-lower Santa Cruz airport to take on enough fuel for the intercontinental flight.
Veering OT, but if VVI was indeed originally intended as a "tech stop", it seems to have surpassed demand expectations, as AA has dropped the LPB stop altogether and now flies MIA-VVI as an out-and-back.
Anyways, as I've posted elsewhere, that short runway at LIH might also have contributed to the loss of DFW-LIH this year. That route was operated by the 767 last winter. However, DFW-KOA going to a 777 this year indicates to me that AA wants to consolidate all DFW-Hawaii flying onto the 777, which cannot make it off the LIH runway without taking a significant payload hit. As a result, the route got canned. Sad!