Originally Posted by
teemuflyer
Sure, but SAT is only a hair larger than Austin, but AUS has double the pax traffic of SAT.
And I know that AA has cut back quite a bit in AUS lately, but this flight would have actually made some sense, vs. some of the others they culled.
The DOT's directive from Congress was pretty clear: preference for cities without service and cities where existing service (for that carrier) doesn't exist. AA went for the slam dunk and got it. Lots of arguments against AA but AA's #1 goal was service to a totally unserved city. By far the safest play, and it was a winning play. Same with AS.