As uncertainty around the duration of the COVID-19 emergency hampers travel demand and restricts international mobility, airlines around the world are adjusting their capacity to this new reality.
American Airlines announced on Thursday further capacity cuts that will be made to its schedule during the peak summer season. The Fort Worth-based carrier will reduce capacity more than 60 percent compared to the same period last year, which includes an 80 percent reduction in Pacific capacity, a 65 percent reduction in Atlantic capacity and a 48 percent reduction in Latin America capacity.
Some international routes that had been previously announced as beginning in October 2020 will now only be operational as of Winter 2021. These include the new service between Dallas-Fort Worth and Auckland, New Zealand, between Los Angeles International and Christchurch, New Zealand and between Seattle and Bangalore, India.
Other routes that were supposed to start during the summer have either been delayed or will not start at all. The service from Boston to London Heathrow will launch on Oct. 25, 2020, while the start of the flight connecting Dallas/Fort Worth and Tel Aviv, Israel will be postponed until September 2021. Other 23 summer seasonal routes will not be operated.
American will only resume four services to the Asia Pacific region throughout the summer: on July 7 the carrier will resume service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea and from Los Angeles to Tokyo Haneda, that on the same date will also see the beginning of the new flight from Dallas/Fort Worth.
In the transatlantic market, nine city pairs will be resumed as of June 4, five of which to London Heathrow, with ten more to be reinstated on July 7.
Destinations served in Latin America will also be reduced to six: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Santiago in Chile and Lima, Peru.
Amerian Airline