Correct.

But UA could only take pax who booked this flight as part of a international itinerary. However, same day travel was not required, just that it be part of an overall int'l itinerary. I once took the UA MEL-SYD flight on a Friday and then SYD-SFO the following Monday.

I think MEL has the highest chance for new Nth American services, the last round of Nth American route announcements (not just from QF/AA) saw SYD (AA/QF), AKL (UA/AA) and BNE (AC) get at least daily services, whilst MEL which is arguably quite a large market got nothing. There were rumblings from the VA/DL camp looking at launching services this year, whilst I think it would make sense for AA to take over QF95/96 with its own daily 789 service complementing QF's daily QF93/94 service.

My vote is firmly with MEL-LAX for AA, QF is keen on MEL-DFW but that would be a few years off.

I think AA would also start LAX-MEL to knock UA off of this route. An AA 789 with direct-aisle-access J (which is a huge plus on such a long flight) and premium economy seating versus a UA 789 with 2+2+2 across J and no PE section.

FWIW, it looks like PHL will start to see more CR7 and CR9s from PSA. Previously there were only a handful but I've found these in the schedule so far for June. Not sure if these are replacing E-jets or upgrades from CRJs

CVG: 2x CR9
PVD: 2x CR7
BDL: 1x CR7
SYR: 1x CR9
RDU: 1x CR9
CHS: 1x CR9
BNA: 1x CR9

Same with PWM. Not sure if it's just for the winter or not.

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil discontinued at start of May.

Recife, Brazil will be suspended May through October.

Lansing will be added to the network this summer, date TBA. Daily from Washington-Reagan and thrice daily from O'Hare.

Was also mentioned here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...mi-recife.html

These are mostly up gauges from CR2

Will AA ever start SNA-CLT?
 

I ask for very selfish reasons, as my company HQ is in Orange County, I spend most of my work days up and down the East Coast, and at least monthly need to trek it out to OC for meetings.

I know most of my travel needs can be accommodated by routing through PHX, DFW, or even out of the way through ORD. I'd just love to have more options.

My current home base in NYC, but will be moving to CHS in next 9-12 months.

i would love a SNA-CLT flight. i feel SNA could use a few more east coast flights (ATL and EWR are the only ones)

For whatever reason, the secondary airports in the LA and SF areas have never been big to the East Coast. SJC gains a CLT nonstop soon for the summer high season, but it, plus BUR, LGB, OAK, ONT and SNA haven't had too much in the way of nonstops east of the Mississippi. LGB and SNA at least require slot lotteries, though, so if AA were to add a CLT nonstop from SNA they'd either need to win a new slot pair or move an existing flight pair.

Given where I usually head to in the LA Basin and SF Bay Area, I would use SJC, SNA, LGB and even MRY and SBA if they had more nonstop service.

PHL, NYC and MIA have substantially more O&D to the LA Basin, so if AA were to begin nonstops from SNA to the East Coast, CLT would be third or fourth in line.* Likely to happen with a slot-restricted airport and a short runway? Not likely.

Not a popular view around here, but IMO, CLT is not seeing, nor will it see, lots of new long-haul domestic flights until its population and O&D numbers catch up to its already-impressive number of flights.

*In addition to the AA hubs listed, BOS and WAS also feature more LA-area O&D than CLT, and nobody is flying from those cities to SNA.

And DFW (and don't forget PHX now as well) are better located than CLT (relative to SNA) to pick up that east coast traffic anyway, with less concern about any possible weight restrictions due to SNA's short runway.

I don't see many people going from NYC to PHL to get to FRA. I do think AA needs to expand their Western European service rather than depend on BA (or AB) to do it for them. At the very least, they should add a flight into a big Air Berlin airport to make for good change of planes in Germany. Ideally, this would be BER, but who knows when that will open....