AA announces new ORD routes, other network adjustments

LAXintl · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:33 pm

Seems like the rivalry at ORD between AA and UA is heating up..

Announced today internally, AA will add 7 markets at ORD effective July 5th.

o Appleton, WI
o Birmingham, AL
o Boise, ID
o Colorado Springs, CO
o Greensboro, NC
o Greenville, SC
o Ontario, CA (summer seasonal only)

Additionally Guatemala City will be added from ORD on July 8th.

This is in addition to previously announced seasonal service to Barcelona, Spain starting in May 5, and seasonal Bozeman MT service that starts in June.

As part of commitment to ORD, AA is building 5-new gates off the L-coucourse and upgrading the H/K Admirals Club along with the new Flagship Lounge.

Other new routes effective July 5th:
o DFW - Spokane
o MIA - Omaha

Lastly to simplify operations at LAX, AA will transition all remaining 757/767 flying to other fleet types at the station.

OzarkD9S · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:34 pm

Good move AA re: ORD. UA adds some new markets, AA does the same. AA will not cede ORD to UA anytime soon.

Flighty · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:45 pm

BHM-ORD should do well. BHM is a pretty strong market.

MAH4546 · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:54 pm

Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

aa777lvr · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:54 pm

And...the additional flights (both AA and UA) into an already congested ORD will only add to the mess that is ORD. I recommend a connection via DTW or MSP where it's significantly less likely to be cancelled.

ty97 · Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:59 pm

LAXintl wrote:
Lastly to simplify operations at LAX, AA will transition all remaining 757/767 flying to other fleet types at the station.

This suggests more to me that LAX will see an increase in 321s. (Perhaps 777/787 at times from other hubs like DFW and MIA).

usflyer msp · Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:10 am

aa777lvr wrote:
And...the additional flights (both AA and UA) into an already congested ORD will only add to the mess that is ORD. I recommend a connection via DTW or MSP where it's significantly less likely to be cancelled.

Since ORD finished their runway reconfiguration it is not bad anymore congeston-wise...

LAXintl · Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:15 am

MAH4546 wrote:
Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

phxtravelboy · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:01 am

So AA is adding MIA-OMA before adding MIA-MKE? Wow. The AS/VX announcement today from the bay area was yet another big finger to MKE. Man it drives me nuts how MKE keeps on getting the shaft.SMH

MSPNWA · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:20 am

The battle for ORD ramps up. Good to see. Those are all cities AA needed to be in. All logical adds. I especially like to see BHM, GSO, GSP, and BOI on the list.

LAXintl · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:28 am

Bloomberg picked up the news.

American Airlines Strikes at United Hub With New Chicago Routes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... add-routes

=

commavia · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:32 am

Ha - awesome. AA is clearly not going quietly at ORD! Good for AA and consumers. Personally, thrilled to see DFW-GEG - one of the domestic markets, along with BUF and MDT, that seem(ed) like obvious adds out of the DFW hub.

glbltrvlr · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:37 am

usflyer msp wrote:
Since ORD finished their runway reconfiguration it is not bad anymore congestion-wise...

No, but if you get stuck landing on the north side of the field, the taxi in takes forever.

ahj2000 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:07 am

https://dallasnews.imgix.net/1489101169 ... or=0&w=600

This is the whole of the new routes this summer.
GEG-DFW BIL-DFW and BOI-ORD needed to happen. This type of dot-connecting is what the merger was made for and I hope to see more of it soon.

Note: there are no new routes from the Northeast hubs

usflyer msp · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:10 am

CLT-RAP is the strangest route on that map. What?

MAH4546 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:17 am

usflyer msp wrote:
CLT-RAP is the strangest route on that map. What?

Mount Rushmore. It's not that strange and it's probably just a Saturday CRJ-900 for ten weeks in peak summer.

DaufuskieGuy · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:22 am

GSP but not CHS or SAV, very interesting.

GSP psgr · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:31 am

DaufuskieGuy wrote:
GSP but not CHS or SAV, very interesting.

Shorter stage length plus longer ties on the route and it's more of a business market with somewhat deeper ties to manufacturing interests in the Midwest. AA served ORD-GSP for close to a decade.

wedgetail737 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:44 am

I was hoping AA would bring OAK-ORD and OAK-DFW back.

MrNuke · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:52 am

MAH4546 wrote:
Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

I'm not overly surprised. It is the 3rd highest unserved market for Omaha behind BOS and SAN.

phxtravelboy wrote:
So AA is adding MIA-OMA before adding MIA-MKE? Wow.

It isn't like MKE doesn't already have nonstop service to the Miami metro via WN to FLL.

JRL3289 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:06 am

LAXintl wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

Or AA is continuing to act on the benefits of its much larger network? Pre-merger AA was a very distant #4 at OMA with only DFW and ORD service; now it is a very competitive #3 (behind WN and DL) with much broader connectivity thanks to the addition of PHX and CLT to the network.

I was also surprised when AA started OMA-LAX last year, but it seems that OMA-MIA is simply a continuation of the trend of OMA-coastal hub connections that have been added in recent years by several airlines (UA/SFO, DL/LGA, AS/SEA, AS/PDX).

MrNuke · Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:18 am

LAXintl wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

The corporate office of Berkshire Hathaway itself employs roughly 25 people.

knope2001 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:28 am

MrNuke wrote:
phxtravelboy wrote:
So AA is adding MIA-OMA before adding MIA-MKE? Wow.

It isn't like MKE doesn't already have nonstop service to the Miami metro via WN to FLL.

Except that Southwest has cut back to only run MKE-FLL six months of the year. A few weeks back regarding the five-way battle for South Florida (AA / NK / G4 / B6 / WN) I posted stats about how well markets are linked to the metro area this summer. Milwaukee is by far the largest market without nonstop service to South Florida this summer. The pax/day is the daily full-year average (both ways combined)

Of the 60 largest markets 56 will have nonstop service this summer...only MKE, PDX, ROC and SMF are missing.

#35 406/day Milwaukee
#42 259/day Portland PDX
#48 200/day Rochester
#52 164/day Sacramento
#55 143/day Omaha

johnboy · Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:41 am

It always makes me scratch my head in confusion when airlines add flights from a pretty big population base to their large hubs on a seasonal basis.
I guess more people are traveling during that time but ONT-ORD seems like it would warrant Year round service

mhkansan · Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:19 am

ORD-PIB is on that map too. Are you kidding? That place barely sustains its essential air service flights to DFW.

dc10lover · Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:22 am

Cool. GEG - DFW. Look at all the NEW routes Summer 2017 is bringing us. Now waiting for any new Delta routes.

joeljack · Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:29 am

Omaha to Miami? I would have never expected this. Weird thing is the start date. Omaha is pretty seasonal, people love to travel that live in Omaha. The strongest month in omaha is June with the college World Series. By end of July, travel winds down with kids heading back to school early august. They would have been smart to start this one month earlier.

n7371f · Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:35 am

Big get for Spokane with AA GEG-DFW. Airport has been working AA for nearly 2 years to add DFW. With UA returning ORD & SFO two weeks ago, best 14 day run for Spokane International in years.

448205 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:44 am

MrNuke wrote:
LAXintl wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

The corporate office of Berkshire Hathaway itself employs roughly 25 people.

I think they're up to 50 now..

:lol:

fraspotter · Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:41 am

LAXintl wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

Granted the greater Omaha-Council Bluffs-Bellevue metro area is steadily approaching 1 million people isn't anything to sneeze at.

usflyer msp · Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:03 am

mhkansan wrote:
ORD-PIB is on that map too. Are you kidding? That place barely sustains its essential air service flights to DFW.

I thought that was odd too but I figured there must be a SCASD grant involved somehow...

usflyer msp · Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:05 am

MAH4546 wrote:
usflyer msp wrote:
CLT-RAP is the strangest route on that map. What?

Mount Rushmore. It's not that strange and it's probably just a Saturday CRJ-900 for ten weeks in peak summer.

I know My Rushmore is there but it is still a long (1400+ miles) thin route even during the summer...

avi8 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:08 am

Do we have the schedules for the new flights? Good for AA on trying out seasonal ORD-GUA, definitely did not see this coming. However, it is a route that has been operated before and with a good amount of O/D traffic.

ahj2000 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:22 am

usflyer msp wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
usflyer msp wrote:
CLT-RAP is the strangest route on that map. What?

Mount Rushmore. It's not that strange and it's probably just a Saturday CRJ-900 for ten weeks in peak summer.

I know My Rushmore is there but it is still a long (1400+ miles) thin route even during the summer...

Delta does it from Atlanta seasonally and has for years. Some market is there.

usflyer msp wrote:
mhkansan wrote:
ORD-PIB is on that map too. Are you kidding? That place barely sustains its essential air service flights to DFW.

I thought that was odd too but I figured there must be a SCASD grant involved somehow...

It looks there are AA* operator problems that are forcing one of the flights to be done from Chicago.

Kden95 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:43 am

Will Colorado Springs be mainline flights or Eagle.

Chuska · Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:31 pm

COS schedules aren't loaded yet but most likely will be Eagle. So glad to see COS back on the map again with all the new Frontier routes recently announced as well.

knope2001 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:49 pm

mhkansan wrote:
ORD-PIB is on that map too. Are you kidding? That place barely sustains its essential air service flights to DFW.

PIB (Laurel / Hatttiesburg) and MEI (Meridian) are linked EAS cities with twice-daily service from Dallas (DFW-PIB-MEI and DFW-MEI-PIB). Skywest petitioned the DoT to allow a service pattern change to link those cities 1x/day to ORD and 1x/day to DFW instead of 2x/day DFW. Both cities enthusiastically supported the change.

I'm not sure what prompted the request to change -- community request, Skywest request in hopes of improving traffic and revenue, or Skywest operational preference (an additional way to rotate RJ airframes or crews between the two hub networks.)

EarlyLateORD · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:01 pm

This also shows that AA can't simply route everything in the Southeast through Charlotte, some routes like Greenville and GSO require a nonstop. I commute from MSP to ROA Roanoke almost weekly. A nonstop to GSO and a short drive is better than my current MSP-CLT-ROA routing. CLT-ROA on a Dash 8 is fun once in a while, but to do it every week, especially when there is weather is awful.

Praying AA eventually launches ORD-ROA to compete with UA, they already offer ORD-CHO which I've done a few times.

Good job AA, keep the new routes coming!

Adam

commavia · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:14 pm

Similar to United's announcement, it will be interesting to see how the market reacts given all the "capacity discipline" dialogue so prevalent these days. We may also hear some commentary on these competitive moves at ORD, and the Street's reaction, when AA presents at an investor conference next week.

AVLAirlineFreq · Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:46 pm

How many of these new ORD routes overlap with existing UA routes?

BatonOps · Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:13 pm

Was hoping to see AA add ITH-ORD. ITH had made a comment a few weeks ago that a major announcement was coming?!?!?!?

AAplat4life · Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:26 pm

These look like timid changes for AA at ORD that probably has Scott Kirby laughing. There are still some important routes for AA to larger airports where it does not sufficiently compete with UA (or compete at all). This could become a problem for AA as UA continues to get its act together. The reference to increased service at SNA is something that happens every year during the summer, particularly since AA cut down its nonstop flights from ORD to 3 a day the rest of the year.

FSDan · Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:37 pm

AVLAirlineFreq wrote:
How many of these new ORD routes overlap with existing UA routes?

All of them except for ONT and GUA (and the previously announced BCN).

phluser · Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:44 pm

GSP psgr wrote:
DaufuskieGuy wrote:
GSP but not CHS or SAV, very interesting.

Shorter stage length plus longer ties on the route and it's more of a business market with somewhat deeper ties to manufacturing interests in the Midwest. AA served ORD-GSP for close to a decade.

WN also services CHS-MDW but not GSP-MDW. So, AA can be on GSP-ORD without WN competition in the mix. But maybe in the future AA will add CHS-ORD. The AA/US merger, mainly the CLT hub connections, has helped AA in the Southeast likely making it more viable for those stations to ORD.

phluser · Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:52 pm

wedgetail737 wrote:
I was hoping AA would bring OAK-ORD and OAK-DFW back.

Another one I wonder if doable is MDT-DFW. I believe AA is the largest carrier in MDT, with even coverage of MDT-BOS.

It'd also help differentiate for those heading down to BWI for a nonstop, that AA offers a closer nonstop flight (than WN service out of BWI) for Central PA out of MDT. I don't the O&D potential though between central PA and Dallas, and how much leakage there is to BWI. There is also the issue that AA will overfly the CLT hub with a MDT-DFW flight. But MDT is certainly not like CAK or OAK as it's the primary airport of it's region.

Over in the Lehigh Valley, I'm sure UA dominates though and it's maybe why we don't see AA on ABE-ORD. A lot of Lehigh Valley customers head to EWR often, and are probably loyal to UA, giving UA an edge even on ABE-ORD.

ckfred · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:17 pm

LAXintl wrote:
MAH4546 wrote:
Miami-Omaha? Wow. Never saw that coming.

Maybe Buffet, or other Berkshire Hathaway execs were desirous of a Florida link, or to help access points south?

Actually, Berkshire doesn't have that many employees at the corporate office in Omaha. I thinks it's less than 50. And you have to assume that senior people would fly Net Jets, since it's owned by Berkshire.

canadianpylon · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:29 pm

And still nothing from AA at ORD to YWG/YQR/YXE... Sigh. Always winter, never Christmas.

MIflyer12 · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:49 pm

canadianpylon wrote:
And still nothing from AA at ORD to YWG/YQR/YXE... Sigh. Always winter, never Christmas.

Blame the anti-trust immunized JV between AC and UA. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room on low-volume transborder routes.

LAXintl · Fri Mar 10, 2017 3:59 pm

ty97 wrote:
This suggests more to me that LAX will see an increase in 321s. (Perhaps 777/787 at times from other hubs like DFW and MIA).

I think it might also hint at AA having reached agreement with LAWA to vacate the supberbay hangar to pave way for the southern portion of midfield satellite to be built.
One of the primary responsibilities for decades has been 767 checks at LAX. Already during the BK, LAX work was reduced, so this could be sign that the remaining 767 work will be shifted to other bases.

FSDan · Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:28 pm

LAXintl wrote:
Lastly to simplify operations at LAX, AA will transition all remaining 757/767 flying to other fleet types at the station.

This is already largely the reality. I think the only regular 757 operation at LAX for a while has been a turn from PHX between Hawaii flights. They've been gone from LAX-Hawaii, DFW, and MIA for quite a while, replaced with 738s and A321s. The 767s are also not a common sight on LAX-DFW and LAX-MIA anymore.

Most 757 flights were pulled from ORD a few years ago too, although there are still a few turns from MIA, CLT, and/or PHL.

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