Originally Posted by
SAN-man
Still doesn't explain why AA had the service at EWR to begin with, considering the overall lack of service they have there vs. at JFK. Maybe it was connections for the old LHR-EWR flight? (kidding)
Why not? The flight worked out of EWR -
very well, and it still does.
The switch to JFK is too feed off of European traffic, because European tourism to the U.S. continues to explode while domestic tourism is expected to slow. Otherwise AA would have likely kept it at EWR.
Even though CO flies EWR-EGE, AA has always carried more passengers on the route than CO; and it was not until very recently that CO flew the route daily. For years, as recently as 2006, AA's service was daily while CO was weekend-only.
The Vail flights are all goldmines. MIA-EGE is one of AA's single best performing domestic routes on a per-flight basis; and the other ones perform outstandingly as well.
And to make things better, they are subsidized by a travel bank, so if for whatever reason AA somehow lost money on these flights, their losses would be covered by Vail Resorts Management Co.