Originally Posted by
fly18725
There would be local demand with this timing. AA is also trying to leverage network with first departure and last arrival in many markets.
Utilization flying from using existing airplanes more efficiently tends to have low marginal costs.
AA does have a robust ~10PM departure bank at DCA, but mostly to smaller airports on RJs. I usually advise my friends to avoid it, since it frequently gets canceled en masse during weather/ATC IRROPs.