American kutter 2700 flyginger daglig i oktober - Curt Lewis

American Airlines chops 83,000 flights from its October schedule


The Fort Worth-based carrier had once forecasted having more flights
than any other airline during the fall month. But demand is difficult to
predict in the COVID-19 era and airlines are adjusting - aggressively.

American Airlines has cut 83,000 domestic flights from its
October schedule during the last two weeks even as it holds
onto hope that another round of federal stimulus grants
could save jobs and service to some cities.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines has cut its global
schedule by 55% from a year ago for the October month, the
company confirmed, including a 48% decrease in domestic
flying as the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of letting
up and passengers show little eagerness to return to the
skies.

It leaves American with about 99,000 flights for October,
slightly more than it has planned for a slimmed down
September schedule. The carrier continues to shrink its
schedules the closer it gets to the actual month of flying, an
indication of how tricky it is to forecast demand during a
global health pandemic, said Jeff Pelletier, managing
director of Dallas-based Airline Data Inc.

More cuts could be coming, Pelletier said. American still
has hundreds of flights on the schedule for 15 cities where it
wants to halt service in early October.

"While there have been numerous press releases on the
removal of flights to the 15 stations throughout their
network in October, what AA has actually done is they
haven't yet pulled the schedule," Pelletier said. "The
schedules are still intact, just at reduced frequencies, in the
hopes that Congress may come back with some money."

American has also recently cut 9,000 flights from its
November plans, too, but will likely make more reductions
as the usually busy holiday month gets closer, he said.

The barebones schedule shows just how conservative
airlines are being as fall approaches after planning an
Airlines are scheduling thousands of fights only
to be canceled.

American Airlines, along with Delta and Southwest, have recently pulled
thousands of ights from October schedules. This graph shows just how man
ights are being scheduled through January, even if many of them may get
pulled because of weak demand.

On Tuesday, only 516,000 passengers went through TSA
security checkpoints at U.S. airports. That's the lowest
passenger count since mid-July. Numbers are down partly
because summer travel is mostly over as public schools and
colleges begin instruction, but also because few business
travelers are getting on planes now to go to meetings and
sales trips.

Even American Airlines' fortress hub at DFW International
Airport is suffering. American's departures at DFW are
down 24% year over year, Pelletier said. As a share of
American's flight schedule, it's actually increased flights to
DFW and its other major hub in Charlotte, N.C. But the
shrinking pie has meant smaller pieces for everyone.
American has cut traffic from DFW the most to its other
major hubs, particularly in New York City, Chicago, Los
Angeles and Washington, D.C.

In fact, American has cut its schedule in D.C. by 80%
compared to a year ago. In Texas, American's service to
Austin has also been cut deeply, down about 41% year-overyear.