aisleorwindow

Well that didn't last long :-(

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/Only-Months-After-Launch-American-Airlines-Is-Canceling-Route-from-Philadelphia-to-Mexico-500521511.html

enpremiere

It's interesting that they even acknowledged that the route was just intended to be a feeder for TATL traffic. They may bring it back one day once they finish their long-term "make PHL our primary NE hub" project.

dkc192

Kinda saw this one coming after seeing dirt cheap Y fares and confirmable C space almost every day in November, on an 8-seat A319 no less (often C1-C2 but up to C3-C4 on some days)! They even changed the return schedule at one point--it used to depart MEX around 9am and arrive PHL around 5pm, but got moved up to 6am-3pm--presumably to improve connectivity with the first bank of European flights.

MrAndy1369

Isn't JFK AA's primary NE hub, though?

AANYC1981

AA's "crown jewel" hub can't even support a flight to Latin America's largest market?

enpremiere

Meh - I have yet to meet anyone who wants to route through PHL if they can get JFK/ORD/DFW/MIA for a TATL connection from Latin America. It's probably why it was such a small plane on that route in the first place.

enpremiere

Not really, it'll continue to play a role on the trans-cons and to LHR but beyond that, the current AA preference is PHL over JFK.

AANYC1981

perseus11

So why doesn't AA have a flight from the secondary "Crown Jewel" hub (JFK) to Latin America's largest market if PHL can't support the premiums required ?

AANYC1981

perseus11

That was a facetious comment for the benefit of the NYC centrics. Here is the most factual reason for ending PHL-MEX - too much capacity overall: "AA will reduce capacity to Mexico City by 14% in 2019". So it's a network problem (to MEX), of which the new PHL flight was a subset.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...-route-453550/

enpremiere

Amen to that. It's really just serving NYLON and LAX/SFO. Beyond that, I haven't seen any significant route additions of in quite some time and probably won't anytime soon.

MrAndy1369

Hmm, does this have to do with the merger itself, or was JFK already declining prior to the merger? I remember a new terminal being specifically built for AA operations at JFK around 2002 or so.

SOBE ER DOC

There are no available slots during highly desirable travel times into and out of JFK. This is limiting growth for every airline at JFK. The difference is that AA had fallen far behind DL and B6 in the market. So much so, there is no path to being competitive. Their best option is to use the airport to O&D with some minor feed to TATL routes. Since PHL is not slot controlled and AA is the 800lb gorilla there they are in a better position to grow successfully. I get that some people on here love to hate on PHL as a connecting airport but IMHO there are far worse airports these days. It get it's not as glamorous of an airport as some but it get the job done, it well positioned for TATL connections and doesn't suffer from any issue the NYC airports, ORD, CLT and other obsolete airports don't suffer from.