PHL Flight Reductions in Fall
 

PHL is going to see 1,800 flights cut from the schedule this Fall. I'm sure we're going to see this across other airports as well...

https://www.inquirer.com/news/phl-ai...-20220804.html

:( I actually liked to use PHL for connections, especially international. Seems like that won't be coming back.

Would be great to have a reference point of much American reduces its schedule normally across the board as the busy summer season shifts to less demand in the fall (Sept/Oct).

Per one of the AA Facebook groups, I saw this: "After peak (august) travel season, AA is reducing 1800 flights over 2 months ... that's 30 flights a day."

30 flights a day for an outstation might be the entire schedule. :eek:
30 flights a day for a hub like PHL.... Per Google, AA has 413 flights at PHL per day. 30/413 is just over 7%. Certainly not insignificant, but not as dramatic as the headline implies.

I believe the original PBJ article, linked in the Inquirer article above, indicated that this is the largest cut of any AA hub, but it is mostly domestic-focused; and cuts will (allegedly) be revisited later this year. It also noted it was compared to 2019 numbers, and that didn't align with reality, given staffing issues and equipment, conveniently leaving out that AA retired the 757, 767, and A330 that was on many routes ex-PHL in the past, as well as the E-190 fleet.

It would have been nice to see some update on the long-planned FL in the AA club refresh announcement yesterday -- or even a long-overdue refresh of the main AC in the B/C concourse, which I believe now dates to the late 90s refurb of the terminal complex (save for paint and carpeting).

I would expect AA to route more eastern domestic connections through CLT/DCA and international through CLT/JFK due to the slot requirements at DCA/JFK (though idk if slot waivers still exist for international flights). I would be interested to see at the end of the year, but I would guess DCA has flown a higher percentage of connecting passengers than ever before due to the downsizing of PHL and lack of business travel.

I'm finding more and more cheaper options connecting through DCA (over CLT), including F fares. Personally, I'd take DCA over CLT any day, including the view when landing from the North. In fact, I fly 2-4 times a week and haven't seen CLT since April. Lower fares also connecting through LGA.

Unless I'm missing it this just sounds like the typical reductions that AA and most every other carrier do every fall once summer demand drops off.

The one thing that annoys me though is that it's hard to plan months ahead when booking flights. It is almost that I should expect a schedule change to a totally different time a month out, which makes it difficult to plan.

The media has been insanely sensationalistic with airline stories the last few weeks, this is just another example.

This seems deeper than usual though. They were stacking PHL like crazy for a few years - I think a combination of staffing and realization that PHL isn't everything that they hoped it would be is leading to a right sizing of the airport.

I usually use this as an opportunity to book a cheap and/or inconvenient flight (overnight layover, redeye, etc.) and then rebook it to a more sensible itinerary when the inevitable schedule change comes. Cheap mileage award with an overnight layover bring it on! I know the odds of no changes several month out are basically zero!

Right now I have a February trip that has both a MCT trip through customs in MIA and an overnight layover in PHL that I am waiting for a schedule change to come through on, but I booked it anyway since it was under $500 RT. Once that schedule change hits you can swap to any reasonable routing on the new schedule without any issue usually.

💯 this ⬆️

No, the "summer reductions" your thinking of are already built in when the schedule is initially loaded (ie. a popular summer vacation destination that is 10x a day in the summer isn't getting loaded 10x a day in the Fall, it's getting loaded at 4x a day because there isn't demand to fill 10x a day outside of summer).

The current announcement from AA (and other airlines) is them saying they're cutting flights out of the schedule that they had initially been planning to operate this fall but don't have the resources for (ie the route they thought they were gonna operate 4x a day is actually only going to be 2x a day). The demand may or may not actually be there to support the 4x a day AA initially planned for (which could be playing into the decisions on specific routes), but given the staffing/availability challenges AA is facing, they only have the resources to operate it 2x/day.

This has always confused me somewhat. Are fare differences waived when having to rebook due to a schedule change?