Extraordinary1

I recently stumbled across this really interesting website that contains a lot of history from airlines and found American Airline's route map from the year 2000. Thought it would be interesting to post: American Airlines September 2, 2000 Hub Route Maps. The international network does not seem to have changed much from then.

OskiBear

Interesting - no LAX-Tokyo except on codeshare, but AA metal to Paris?

PHL

This was shortly after OW was created with AA, BA, CX, QF and Canadian International (I have no recollection of this one). So not surprising there wasn't a big tie in with Japan yet. I don't see a JFK route map, but didn't AA serve HKG from there to build on the partnership with CX?

AlwaysAisle

AA did not start LAX-NRT till 2004, and JL joined OneWorld in 2007. I think in 2000 flying LAX-NRT on AA metal was LAX-SJC-NRT. AA operated SJC-NRT from 1991 to 2006. Living in L.A. back in 2000 as an AA flyer, I do remember the usual scene in the morning at the AA check-in counter people with Japanese passports checking in for SJC flight. I remember AA tried to fill the SJC-NRT flight with LAX-SJC-NRT and LAS-SJC-NRT passengers. AA had a lone LAS-SJC flight by MD80 back then. I once did fly LAS-SJC-LAX because that was cheapest, all LAS-LAX non-stop was more, and remember LAS-SJC and SJC-LAX flights had a large number of passengers connecting to/from SJC-NRT flight.

IggySD

Scroll over to the right on the top row, the New York City Airports “Connecting Complex” map is over there. No HKG, only Asia flight is a codeshare to Tokyo. Curious about the total number of international destinations, from eyeballing it it seems there are even fewer today or at best the same. Will probably do a further analysis to get the exact number but it seems pretty sad to me that after a merger and 20+ years of “growth” the international footprint hasn’t actually increased.

Edited to add that I just noticed that NY is only a connecting complex from BOS. Not mentioned as one from any of the other hubs.

JJeffrey

AFAIK in modern times AA never served HKG until DFW started with the 77W's around 2014/2015.

In the 90's AA service to Asia was basically NRT only from DFW, the aforementioned SJC, and don't forget about SEA.

Oldest AA timetables I have are from '92 and '95.

CurbedEnthusiasm

I can just close my eyes and imagine sinking back into one of those big brown loungers on a DC-10.

I almost had forgotten that some of the London routes went to Gatwick before there was an open skies agreement between the US-UK.

brenc3

Much US carrier service into HKG pre-2000 was UA and NW serving via other hubs, mostly Japan. Seems like the first nonstop service from the NYC area to HKG was CO in 2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_flights

Aircraft range was going to limit where in Asia an airline could serve from the US without fifth freedom rights.

AA's service to Asia was very thin before 2010 or so. For a while it was Japan only from a few hubs, mostly NRT but some service to KIX and NGO.

Interesting how BOS's importance has yo-yoed in AA's recent history. That's a decent network shown in 2000. Quite a bit of transcon service, and AA offered both day and night flights to LHR. But things scaled back, then took a hit in the financial crisis until they were roughly back to service to the "cornerstone hubs" (remember them?). I was especially worried about Boston's viability when they closed the Eagle operations. But then the US merger made BOS important again, along with way more nonstop OneWorld service to Europe and Asia than I ever dreamed of.

Antarius

Well other airlines have adapted and changed, AA remains relatively rudderless and with the status quo, despite having enviable partners in hubs that many would kill for.

Since Crandall, save for a brief period with Horton, we've seen incompetence at an unprecedented scale - Carty, Arpey, Parker, Isom. 25 years later, the new American is the old American.

M60_to_LGA

I remember flying LGW-RDU (of all places) on AA back in the late 90s or early 2000s.

wutlol

It is truly incredible how much optimism I felt with Horton at the helm. I remember meeting him a few times, and talking to employees about him, and he seems like the last corporate leader of AA who had anything close to approaching a coherent vision of what the airline could be and what it stood for.

It is crazy how low the bar has fallen and yet AA’s current executive suite still fails to meet it.

(I also feel sad thinking how neither SFO nor SJC would be on such a printed foldout today. Imagine the AA OGs just completely capitulating one of the highest business spend markets in the US.)

FLL88

Interesting HOUSTON HOBBY. In 2000, AA flew JFK-HOU, LAX-HOU and DFW-HOU. Only the DFW flight is still around. I suppose AA was unable to compete on LAX with WN and the JFK market went to B6 in the Northeast Alliance deal.

joejones

There was also DFW-KIX which started at the very end of the 90s (I flew that one in 1999 on an MD-11 and in 2000 on a 777), and SJC-TPE for a very brief time before 9/11. SEA-NRT flight used to continue to MIA with the same flight number although I believe there was a change of gauge.

joejones

That was largely because Glaxo had its corporate offices right by both of those airports and they made a huge volume commitment to support the route. I was a little surprised when the route shifted to LHR, but I suppose that was to make it more attractive to a broader group of travelers.

AA also picked up the PHL-LHR route from US at one point in the early 90s (when US was forced to divest due to its tie-up with BA) and the flight number continued to RDU. I was living in Raleigh at the time and remember it being a big deal that American was offering service to both London airports.

Before London, they also flew RDU-ORY/CDG in the very early 90s, which is briefly mentioned in the first Home Alone film. I have no idea what the business rationale for that was.

moondog

PVG and PEK were served from LAX by a single MU flight, on which AA codeshared. That's back when MU, and its MD11, was on my "avoid" list. They've improved substantially since.