Coronavirus News
American Airlines flights pick back up in response to customer demand
In the latest step of recovery from the coronavirus shutdown, American Airlines is reigniting summer travel by restoring more flights, reopening key Admirals Club lounges, and expanding flexible policies.
To give things a little kickstart, they're offering double AAdvantage miles for flights booked in June.
The airline is planning to fly 55 percent of its domestic schedule and nearly 20 percent of its international schedule in July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
A release says that they saw an increase in demand in May. By the last week of May, they were carrying a daily average of about 110,000 customers per day — an increase of 71 percent over April, when their daily average was 32,000 customers.
American is also increasing frequency of flying from hubs, including Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to destinations customers are searching and booking most, with increased flying to major cities in Florida, Gulf Coast cities, and mountain destinations.
The airline also increased frequency of flying to Asheville, North Carolina (AVL); Savannah, Georgia (SAV); and Charleston, South Carolina (CHS) for business and leisure travelers.
As the nation’s favorite theme parks begin to open, American will offer more seats to Florida than any other airline in July. American has also added more flying to mountain destinations in Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming as national parks and outdoor recreational spaces reopen and customer demand for these destinations continues to recover.
“We’re seeing a slow but steady rise in domestic demand. After a careful review of data, we’ve built a July schedule to match,” said Vasu Raja, American’s senior vice president of network strategy. “Our July schedule includes the smallest year-over-year capacity reduction since March. We’ll continue to look for prudent opportunities to restore service so our customers can travel whenever and wherever they are ready.”
The July schedule will be reflected on aa.com and ready to purchase on Sunday, June 7.
Slower international demand
While international demand continued to be diminished, today marked the return of service to eight international destinations. These include service from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Amsterdam (AMS), Paris (CDG), and Frankfurt (FRA), as well as service from Miami (MIA) to Antigua (ANU) in the Caribbean and Guayaquil (GYE) and Quito (UIO) in South America. American also restored additional service to London (LHR) from Chicago (ORD) and New York (JFK).
American will delay the return of some previously announced international routes — including transatlantic service from Philadelphia (PHL) and CLT — to August.
