I wouldn't be surprised considering both Novartis and Roche have facilities in the Central/North Jersey area, with Novartis being very large. Also does hurt that it's *A hub to hub.

I concur. After a red-eye a lounge with a shower prevents the need to check into a hotel for two hours.

Delta has 2 of their 10 SFO flights on A330s, and something tells me there is zero compensation if a 763/752 gets subbed in as it is still lie-flat D1.

The 763 is still 1-2-1. Regardless, I'd take DL's product and service over AA's product and service, even if I had to "suffer" with a DL 752 on the route.

I don't believe that "JFK is the odd one out". While I'm not privy to AA strategic planning, it does seem that as the largest airline in the world, AA can effectively support two northeast international hubs better than anyone else. PHL vs. JFK is not a zero sum game. I don't use JFK often, but the few times I've flown in and out this year it has appeared as though AA is utilizing every gate. Personally, I wouldn't mind a few less International flights out of JFK in exchange for for connections to non-hub cities like STL or SAN. Either way I don't see any sign that JFK is being deprecated. UA on the other hand has retrenched into its EWR fortress and truly has deprecated LGA after abandoning JFK. I think AA is still bullish on NYC.

I think the issue is slot availability for AA. JFK is still slot controlled and AA is maxed out on what they can use based on their allocation, so the only way they could grow flights is to acquire slots from someone else. That will be an uphill slog since B6 and DL are in a back alley fight to get every slot they can to support their hubs. Meanwhile, UA wants back not JFK after selling their 26 slots to DL.

AA is not going to get any bigger at JFK anytime soon. Their only hope is the expansion announced last week will result in a bolus of slots becoming available sometime in the next several years. In the meantime, they will continue focusing on O&D and connecting traffic to other OW partners at JFK.

Are the Eagle slots only allowed to be used by RJs? If not, that's a bunch of slots they can use for a better sized flight than an RJ to a mid-size town that would do better flowing through PHL.

AFAIK the slots are by hour, not aircraft type. AA could probably operate as many flights as it wants at 6 AM. It's the peak hours (which at JFK are in the afternoon) where slots are tight.

Regarding the sizing of planes, keep in mind that for inside the perimeter, demand is split between LGA and JFK, which can limit the size of plane that a flight to JFK can support. This is true for both O/D and connecting as there are plenty of people connecting at LGA.

My guess is that you'll see more adds along the lines of the recently announced JFK-SAT, where SAT is outside the perimeter, is a large area to have good O/D, and has a reasonable FF base for AA. I know it's boring for folks on FT but someone is running the numbers at AA.

Most of the Eagle flights I'm mentioning are in the afternoon and evening. Slots are not the issue for AA adding more mainline and int'l flights.

When your old ticket shows a direct flight between JFK to NRT on AA metal :(

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e593da0738.png

wow I would love that itinerary!

It's been a slow march for years. For a long time I flew American, but as AA dehubbed STL and pulled back in NY and DL merged with NW and ramped up NY -- one day I was shocked that I was buying JFK -LHR on Delta instead of OW. I've got nothing against PHL, but it's never going to be my primary gateway. It's sad that AA is third in NY and STL now, but it's been a boon for B6 and WN.

What date are you looking? I don't see it running a few weeks in late Jan and early Feb but otherwise it's there.

I was looking at mid-Jan. Sounds like it's just off for a couple weeks over the winter and then starts back up. It's hard to take the all-day BA flight with no wifi...

So as I watch LGA unfold before my eyes with future renderings and I having seen the new plan for JFK its leading me to think that AA will be forced to pull back over time. If you look at the LGA Plans with the US Air/ AA gate swap (LGA and DCA) Delta gained control of much of the airport. With LGA moving forward they will have plans to have a consolidated terminal. They are the real winners at LGA. At JFK B6 and Delta again are the overwhelming winners. It looks like BA and AA will consolidate into T8 as thought by many but the renderings dont show any added space to the terminal meaning AA will either be forced to enlarge the T8 on their own dime or they will leave it the same size. At the end of the day between modernization and the corporate direction AA looks like it will be forced to have a smaller role in NYC moving forward. What will be sad is if they want to come back it may be to late.

Thoughts?

Check Out The Slick New Renderings For LaGuardia's $4 Billion Delta Terminal Overhaul: Gothamist

https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/go...Renderings.pdf

I swear AA was going to launch 1x weekly LGA-AUA, but I can't find it this winter which is when I thought it would be flying.......am I missing it somewhere? Could really use a fun weekend getaway after waking up to 3 degree temps this AM!

American Airlines

"To Aruba, flights between New York-LaGuardia and Queen Beatrix International Airport will operate on Saturdays from June 8, 2019 with the carrier’s Boeing 737-800"

https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/amer...utes-for-2019/

Although New York is a "hub" for AA, AA decided not to battle with DL over LGA as a true hub. Other than some Eagle flights and a few one offs like to Aruba (also IIRC a seasonal flight to MCO) LGA acts like a spoke. Parker gave up LGA to DL during LUS days and carried over the tradition to PMAA (which LAA had already pulled down LGA).

While I don't disagree that US and PMAA squandered opportunities at LGA, the extent of Eagle service to quite a number of markets makes LGA much more than a spoke.

Shortly after the HP-US merger, he wanted LGA to act like a traditional hub. However, there are distance restrictions flying into LGA:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/o...a-guardia.html

It is kind of silly; seems that American and Continental (and perhaps United) helped write the rule when it was begun, as the hubs at DFW and IAH are just barely within range (and DEN was an exception). But AUS isn't, so I can fly AUS-EWR or AUS-JFK, but would have to go through a hub if I wanted to fly to LGA specifically.

Anyway, as PHX was a major hub for HP then US, Parker wanted PHX-LGA flights. HP had flown both PHX-JFK and LAS-JFK (in the days of the LAS hub) for years. He didn't see the reasoning in servicing 2 airports so close together.
US briefly did run PHX-LGA Saturday service (that is a day when the 1500 mile limit is exempted).


The US Shuttle did use LGA, for DCA-LGA-BOS flights, and I believe AA still has that, although it may not be labelled as shuttle anymore.

US had a very extensive operation at LGA predating the HP merger. Poor service, sub-optimal equipment and focus on other markets ultimately led to a deterioration in the value of the slots to US. With a hub at JFK, the Shuttle, and historical strength to Florida ex-LGA, DL was well positioned to make the assets at LGA much more productive by creating a single option for NYC point of sale travelers (albeit split at two airports). DL's customer base supports flights from LGA to markets US would never have been able to fill. PMAA could have arguably leveraged the assets given its sizeable JFK operation and historical strength in the NYC market, but lacked the vision and/or currency to get the slots from US.

And especially the fact that US and DL swapped 42 DCA slot pairs for 132 LGA slot pairs (which I think US was largely using for turboprop flights around NY and the neighboring states), and then US/AA had to give up the extra DCA slot pairs in the merger. So ultimately US gave DL 132 LGA slot pairs for a player to be named later who never got out of the minors.

AA (pre- or post-merger) would have been able to make much better use of those slot pairs than US, I think pretty much everyone agrees.

AA covers about 30 cities out of LGA. That's one hell of a spoke.

When its an E-140, yah it is!

Mostly on small a/c. Not anything near DCA. Compare that to the LUS and LAA days. AA doesn't even fly NYC/TPA, NYC/FLL and NYC/RSW direct.

Yes, for us, that was the problem. We went to FLL out of NYC for a friend's daughter's Bat Mitzvah a couple of years ago. It became an all-day ordeal each way, as we had to fly through CLT, in January, and there were delays. Last year, we flew to FRA on AA. Yikes. JFK to CLT to FRA on the way over. Meh. On the way back, we made the, as it turned out, huge mistake of being in Turin the day before our flight back. We had a flight back from Turin on LH at 1:00 pm the afternoon before. Plenty of time, right? Wrong. All flights from Turin to FRA got cancelled.

We caught the first flight into FRA the following morning, but FRA is huge, and we just missed the CLT flight by ten minutes. AA put us on the flight into PHL, which was perfect, timing wise. Arriving into PHL was not wonderful. PHL was a madhouse of an airport, where no one seemed to know anything ("Where is the Admiral's Club?" "Huh?") and delays were the order of the day (Our commuter flight into JFK was delayed by several hours; the gal sitting behind us had to take a flight into MAD and was not going to make it; we were told in the AC that these flights are routinely delayed out of PHL by several hours). We could not believe that this is how AA welcomes passengers into the US.

Do you have any reason to specifically want a direct NYC-FLL when there are roughly a dozen of NYC-MIA?

DCA-FLL is gone too for what its worth.

Me personally no but I assume some living in Broward would like to avoid Miami Dade/Broward traffic to MIA airport. Given that AA at one time had 2-3 daily 757 LGA/FLL flights. Not to mention LGA/MCO 757 flights, LGA/TPA and LGA/PBI (year round). Can't remember if there was ever a LGA/RSW flight. Other than MIA B6 and DL have pretty much chased AA out of FL.

Don't believe RSW was served via LGA. I'm pleaed PBI has made a return (even seasonally). With limited slots, returns on capital invested in business-heavy Eagle markets makes more sense than sending multiple daily mainliners to FLL/MCO/TPA/PBI at leisure fares. Also, DL's ability to (re)enter and sustain LGA-MIA in particular speaks volumes to the network advantage it has been able to leverage in NYC.

Ultimately DL decided to make the investment to make itself the number airline out of NYC. Now whether the investment was worth it? Since DL doesn't disclose profitability by station we realy don't know.

It's certainly a focus city, but to call their NYC operation a hub, which some people do, is disingenuous.