pjoalfa

I'm curious. How come? Why do the Caribbean flights break even at lower loads? Freight?
I was told way back when on an empty flight from SDQ that they make out great with cargo. Now all the SDQ flights run 100% and they have fewer flights than last year.

MAH4546

Freight and yields.

Miami-Providenciales, for example, has the highest CASM in AA's entire network. These routes command high fares for relatively short distances. MIA-PLS is a very short hop - shorter than MIA-ATL - but easily commands an average one-way fare of over $280.

Miami-Maracaibo fares, for example, in the middle of July, still 6-8 weeks in advance, are already inching over $800, and that route is roughly the same length as Miami-New York. Good luck getting those fares consistently on MIA-JFK.

Plus, as you mentioned, freight plays a role, the bellies are also full. And, a third and less obvious culprit - overweight baggage fees.

MAH4546

That's in line with what I've been hearing, although the cuts are not finalized.

I think STL will probably lose 30-40 flights, but that is my opinion only, not based on anything.

abk

can you provide a link for this?

aamilesslave

It is not surprising that this has not been loaded. Other route changes have only been reflected in the rez system after the weekend update; I suspect we'll see something similar over the coming weekend.

JoePizza

I don't think they will be reducing this flight. In fact its increasing to 5x daily (all mainline) come the fall. I remember it used to be 4x (2 on eagle, 2 on mainline) & then it went all mainline & now gets another increase. Given the current economic climate, the flight must be doing very well. I fly it often & its usually packed (not that full flights mean much). Does anyone know how the route is doing? Its odd that it works IMO given the so-called fortress atl hub. delta can't seem to make inroads into any aa hubs out of nyc like aa has done to delta (atl & cvg).

bpauker

Rather than wait for the agents to call me to rebook my ORD-EZE flight, I called in tonight to handle it now. I was put on a connection through MIA... not ideal, to be sure, but the agent couldn't get me on the nonstop from DFW. I'm a little disappointed that I won't get to try the FL in ORD as I don't think I will have any other international travel this year through a gateway that has an FL... oh well!

mvoight

> Washigton/Reagan-Fayetteville, AK (American Eagle/MQ)

I think that would be AR. AK is Alaska.

asl

My mistake on JFK-EZE - I thought it was a seasonal equipment rotation (our winter=777, our summer = 763). I flew it a couple of weeks ago and found it a great, easy flight (great Purser in J as well).

I hope that they don't touch either of YYZ and ATL. My parents live in YYZ and I routinely will catch the 7.05am flight to secure the early morning 738 or the 5.40pm 738 return to LGA - very easy upgrade route for a PLAT.

I also use the LGA-ATL flights a fair bit, as a portfolio company is based there. Flights I have been on seem full, but AA's KUP fare is much cheaper way to travel in First than the Delta offering.

Aside question - does ExpertFlyer retain inventory levels? It would be a very interesting application/utility to use that data to look at historical fares/loads.

bikedude3000

New service from Dallas Love Field to Chicago O'Hare starting 02 July 2008, 6x daily. Oddly enough, the addition of this route seems to have escaped notice since it wasn't included in AA's press release, although it does appear in the revised timetable.

By the way, American Eagle can fly nonstop to Chicago from Love Field because the regional jets it uses at Love Field contain 50 seats, below the seating ceiling set by the Wright Amendment.

--------NEW SERVICE---------------

01JUN08

Dallas-Buffalo (American Eagle/MQ; seasonal through 03SEP08)

Fort Lauderdale-Kingston

02JUN08

Chicago-Moscow/Domodedovo

07JUL08

LaGuardia-Cedar Rapids (American Eagle/MQ)

Chicago-Dallas Love Field (American Eagle/MQ)

20NOV08

Miami-Antigua
Miami-Grenada

07APR09

Chicago-Beijing

ORDforlife

I'm really puzzled by this addition. I'm one of the lucky ones who was able to take advantage of DAL service during that freakish period when it was all first class service to/from ORD to compete with Legend (?). Of course, as a sign of the times, it's on Eagle. Why is AA trying to compete out of DAL at all? Talk about a money losing operation...

ORDforlife

I'm a little peeved about this one, as I was looking forward to traveling this route and using some VIPs on a reconfigured 763 on a long, long flight. Of course AA really doesn't care about my ability to use VIPs.

swag

They aren't trying to compete. It's all about the real estate. They need to protect their gates at DAL, both to prevent a LCC from moving in, and with an eye 6 years down the road when the plane size restrictions finally expire. With the cuts of DAL-AUS and DAL-MCI, they had to put something in instead. I'm guesing RJ's to ORD looked like it would lose less money than the alternatives.

envgeo

that's a bummer. i used both the mci and aus flights. The Dallas Morning News failed to pick this up in their newspaper article today

ORDforlife

Thanks for the added info. I'm not up to date on the Wright Amendment expiration. I know it's a big issue for the folks down there and noticed AA DFW ground crew wearing t-shirts about the amendment. It just seems like such a waste of time and money.

AA eventually pulled out of MDW and stopped trying to compete with WN there. Why not DAL?