AA's operation in DFW and the entire
region is a fortress. I forget sometimes that UA even has hubs in DEN and IAH, which are generally not that much farther from where I am at, because the local service by UA to those hubs
pale in comparison to what AA does with the regional airports to/from DFW. And once in DFW, you can pretty much fly anywhere.
Originally Posted by
gophish11
Absolutely not. Besides the fact that this is AA's headquarters, DFW is a critical mid-continent hub that can connect passengers anywhere in the US in <4 hours. Dallas is a booming city and one of increasing importance as a center of job and population growth, economic activity, etc., and a place where AA has a lot of economic and political sway. Why would they move away? There's just too much to lose and no other location that AA could objectively expand to the degree that would be needed to replace DFW.
Now, I'd like to see them come up with a more cohesive strategy for their international gateways and would expect to see more TATL growth in PHL and CLT as opposed to DFW, and hopefully a desire to rebuild LAX as their TPAC hub down the line.
Still DFW is AA, and AA is DFW and that will not change in our lifetimes.
Frankly, I'd love to see DFW's international operation continue to build-out. The East Coast (in general) is pretty well served TATL, and sure AA has to compete in that space and there are obvious logistical benefits of gatewaying to Europe from PHL/CLT, but there is a region of 40+ million or so over here that is very well connected to DFW (and only DFW), and tens of millions more that can just as easily (or more easily) connect through DFW logistically speaking than PHL or CLT. PHL, overall, is pretty poorly connected to much of the central and western US. The nearest 7 airports to me that AA serves (SWO, TUL, OKC, LAW, JLN, XNA, ICT) all go to Dallas (with pretty darn good frequency too), only a couple have a flight to CLT, and none go to PHL. ((And, what sucks about that, is that TATL flights from DFW always seem to cost a fortune. I find it amazing at how cheap and empty AA TATL flights can be from JFK in comparison))