AA Cuts All JFK-SJU Non Stops in September
 

Schedule change shows no more non stop service.

I hope this is a mistake.

It's hard to believe that B6 3x321 and 1x 320, plus Delta 3x 737, would drive AA off this route completely.

You can hope this is a Saturday schedule misfile but if it isn't corrected in a day or two one might need to accept this as reality.

Well let's see but in any event it is telling to observe what has happened to AA on that route in the last 15 years. I remember a flight to SJU for my bachelor party on a DC-10, 6 guys all upgraded on various instruments. That was a nice bird up front, very spacious.

For what is worth, the weekdays direct ORD/CLT/PHL-SJU is not on the schedule, only on weekends.

Maybe a "?" would be appropriate for the thread title until/unless confirmed (and since Sundays of an AA schedule change tend to yield incomplete information.)

A biggie, for sure, if true.

Annnnnd, this:

http://www.airliners.net/forum/viewt...b46141ec1091d8

DL and AA have been throwing capacity at routes like JFK-SJU following JetBlue's focus on the Caribbean. Not sure why... sounds like they're not sure why anymore either.

Easy explanation to me. AA use to operate their Caribbean hub out of SJU. That no longer exist as Seaborne has taken A.Eagle routes and JetBlue has invaded an otherwise not overly expensive destination.

Force everything from Miami and let the other guys fight over it.

Add to it Puerto Rico economy challenges and outside of cruise ships and folks relocated off the territory - probably a very wise decision.

Do you really think nine flights a day (picking Monday, 9/18), only one of which is a widebody, represents a lot of capacity NYC-SJU?

AA is also uncompetitive in NYC. JFK-SJU is just the latest of many NYC cuts. In the bigger picture, it's becoming clear JFK will be the first hub dropped following the AA/US merger.

SJU is a 99% leisure destination for mainlanders. Of course flights are also full of Puerto Ricans going back and forth. I guess the route was just not profitable enough, and AA decided to relinquish it to B6, along with so many other Caribbean routes.

Which might finally force me to overcome my inertia and move to DL.

No, it won't.

Capacity isn't the issue, it's PRASM. No carrier shares that data. But, with SJU shifting to solely a leisure destination for O&D traffic from a commercial center, it's not likely that the fares structure supports what's needed.

There are dozens of threads on FT where some carrier cuts a flight and the conclusion is that this is clear evidence that some station is about to be dehubbed.

If that happens to JFK, it won't be over the SJU route.

Recall so well when AA acquired Trans Caribbean Airways in 1972 the JFK-SJU route was the prime route for plucking. AA gradually replaced TC's DC-8-61s with 707s first, later on some 747s, then when those went bye-bye in AAs fleet DC-10s and then again later A300s. SJU was an airport that AA ruled. Surely have watched the decline in recent years but still so very difficult to believe!