American Airlines announced Saturday night additional schedule changes which will reduce international capacity by 75 percent year-over-year. The schedule reductions will take place between March 16th and May 6, 2020.
Late Saturday (March 14, 2020), American Airlines announced additional schedule changes in response to reduced customer demand related to the global COVID-19 pandemic. From March 16th through May 6, 2020, the carrier will reduce year-over-year international capacity by 75%. American will continue to operate one flight daily between Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and London-Heathrow (LHR), one flight daily between Miami (MIA) and LHR and three weekly flights between DFW and Tokyo-Narita (NRT). The carrier will continue to operate short-haul international flights to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and certain destinations in the northern part of South America.
Additionally, American Airlines will reduce domestic capacity by 20% in April and 30% in May versus 2019. Effective March 16th, the carrier will also suspend all remaining flights to Asia, with the exception the three times weekly service between DFW and NRT previously mentioned. Service between Los Angeles (LAX) and Auckland (AKL) and Sydney (SYD) will also be suspended from March 16, 2020.
The carrier is also phasing suspension of service between the U.S. and Europe in order to repatriate guests and team members. Although one daily flight will continue operating to LHR from DFW and MIA, over the next seven days American will suspend flights to London from New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD) and Los Angeles (LAX). Because Charlotte (CLT), Philadelphia (PHL), and Phoenix (PHX) aren’t approved U.S. repatriation gateways, service between these airports and LHR, Manchester (MAN) and Dublin will be suspended first. The final eastbound flights from CLT, PHL and PHX will take place on Sunday March 15th, while the final westbound flights from LHR, DUB and MAN will depart on Monday, March 16, 2020.
Effective tomorrow (March 16th), American is also suspending flights from JFK and MIA to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and Georgetown, Guyana (GEO) as well as service from DFW, JFK and MIA to São Paulo (GRU). The carrier is further suspending flights between DFW and MIA to Santiago (SCL), Bogota (BOG), Guayaquil (GYE), Quito (UIO) and Lima (LIM). Service between Miami and Brasilia (BSB), Manaus (MAO), Barranquilla (BAQ), Cartagena (CTG), Cali (CLO), Medellin (MDE) and Pereira (PEI) have also been suspended from March 16th.
Source: American Airlines
Editor's Note: We stand by the entire American Airlines team and all airlines during this difficult period as the entire world fights to limit the transmission of, and ultimately recover from, the global COVID-19 pandemic. Once it has been defeated, we look forward to the emergence of an even stronger and more robust global commercial airline industry.