EDI at least was a pmUS PHL route that AA moved to JFK after the merger. They're moving it back now.

Well they just cut service to Frankfurt and added it to Dubrovnik, is the goal that Philly is supposed to focus on leisure markets by cutting business routes and not replacing them anywhere?

As for JFK, killing the ZRH route is not a great example of attempting to focus on business markets.

Seems very hard to work out any sort of strategy here. Clearly they want to focus trans-Atlantic flying through Philly, but route selection remains a mystery and I have no idea how they think they're going to maintain any sort of foothold on the NYC market by hacking away at the route network. Maybe they should just sell the JFK slots to United--I hear that they figured out leaving was a bad idea despite the strong presence at EWR.

They were not serving JFK-FRA. And if the soon-to-be-axed seasonal PHL-FRA route was such a business route, it would not have been made a seasonal route a couple of years ago.

They served JFKFRA briefly, VERY briefly, in the 1990s then around 2001 I think. Some people are still complaining that it is gone. Time to move on. And yes - if PHLFRA had been so successful year round, they would have kept it year round.

The point is, for the most part, flights to German business centers such as FRA and MUC are HIGHLY dependent on the German corporate point of sale. AA cannot touch it - they all go to LH and UA. There's a reason UA does well in FRA and MUC and the others have far less success. It's their relationship with Lufthansa. Germans are very brand loyal, and that's it.

and now we are saying FRA is not a business route. While you are right in pointing out AA has never offered JFK - FRA, I believe posts above already answered the question: it is partly because AA that served the business routes with outdated AC which pushed business pax to UA/DL/*A/ST, not the routes per se not business.

Delta makes its Germany routes work.

They do, and AA does from DFW and CLT. DL does from markets that it owns (DTW and ATL) and is willing to deal with JFK. Maybe they have a corporate contract in NYC that helps it. Delta has also been in Germany for nearly 40 years and has worked at building a point of sale strength there to get some of the German point of Sale. AA has been trying for less time, and for the most part has failed to capture the German point of sale corporate market, for whatever the reason.
Not all airlines can be all things to all people, and you see that in the various decisions that each carrier has to make as they're figuring out how to most profitably allocate their resources.

Its also worth noting that Delta had a hub in FRA (that it acquired from PanAm) in the early 1990s.

I don't think it's the main reason though. It may have contributed to their relative success.

Delta also has or has had flights to more German markets than AA has had consistently--TXL, STR, DUS in addition to MUC and FRA.

What JFK routes will now be left in the Caribbean? Maybe just STT? Seems like domestic from JFK will be LAX, SFO, MIA with a once a day to/from SAN, SEA and LAS, token 1 or 2 a day to CLT, DFW, ORD and whatever remains of Eagle.

I think they are increasing their frequencies to DFW to 4 a day. They also do flights like MCO, BOS (mainline, not eagle), DCA (mainline) from JFK.

I totally don't understand these. Is AA's target market here people from southern Queens and Long Island who have business in Dallas? Most people from the New York Metro area are going to prefer the plentiful LGA flights. Putting flights to a hub within the LGA perimeter at DFW seems like a huge waste of a JFK slot.

I would be in favour of AA selling the slots to UA. I am sick and tired of them cutting service out of JFK. I will never fly to Europe from PHL, ever. Not even if it were free. They need to come up with a new business plan that doesn't involve PHL.

- Need to keep JFK slots active with some kind of flights
- Flagship lounge as a selling point for JFK to DFW to international passengers

I'm sure it happens amongst the FlyerTalk crowd, but I have literally never had a conversation with someone that would go to JFK vs. LGA in order to make a connection to DFW for an international flight because the lounge was nicer.