AA launches 13 new routes from AUS

asuflyer · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:05 pm

American will add three-times daily service to El Paso, Texas (ELP); twice-daily service to Cincinnati (CVG); Indianapolis (IND); Kansas City, Missouri (MCI); and St. Louis (STL); and daily service to Jacksonville, Florida (JAX); Oklahoma City (OKC); Reno, Nevada (RNO); San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU); and Tulsa, Oklahoma (TUL)

American adds nonstop service to Cancun, Mexico (CUN); Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR); Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR); Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ). The carrier will also begin year-round nonstop service from AUS to Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD) and Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) following this summer’s successful seasonal service.

https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2 ... fault.aspx

Runway765 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:10 pm

So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

Someone83 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:16 pm

Is it mostly with e-jets?

phatfarmlines · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:19 pm

asuflyer wrote:
American will add three-times daily service to El Paso, Texas (ELP); twice-daily service to Cincinnati (CVG); Indianapolis (IND); Kansas City, Missouri (MCI); and St. Louis (STL); and daily service to Jacksonville, Florida (JAX); Oklahoma City (OKC); Reno, Nevada (RNO); San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU); and Tulsa, Oklahoma (TUL)

American adds nonstop service to Cancun, Mexico (CUN); Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR); Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR); Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (PUJ). The carrier will also begin year-round nonstop service from AUS to Los Cabos, Mexico (SJD) and Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) following this summer’s successful seasonal service.

https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2 ... fault.aspx

SJU [even as daily!] and PUJ are a bit surprising. Those would likely not have been routes DL would have added in its theoretical focus. And I don't think neither are heavily-traveled Oracle-contracted markets.

tphuang · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:30 pm

AA is picking the wrong fight here.

Wneast · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:33 pm

tphuang wrote:
AA is picking the wrong fight here.

With WN ?

onwFan · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:38 pm

Runway765 wrote:
So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

What’s even more surprising is that this looks even larger than what a DL focus city at AUS would have been. One would think this might cannibalize DFW connections; but this for sure says one thing: the AUS experiment seems to have worked really well for AA. Otherwise, there is no need for AA to expand this way in a market where they already had the largest business share.

jplatts · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:38 pm

There are business ties between AUS and OKC to support AUS-OKC nonstop service with Round Rock-based Dell Technologies having a campus in Oklahoma City.

joeblow10 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:39 pm

Ditto on the “where will these fit” question - that terminal was already packed pre COVID.

That said - impressive build up by AA. They must have seen success in the early flights they added. While I assume WN will go to bat in AUS, they now would have quite a bit of catching up to do

PA727 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:39 pm

They can't staff their current operation, yet want to duplicate capacity available just up the road? Way to fight a pointless battle when you're already losing the overall war. Wonder if the incoming morning flights will include "voluntary" HO help to staff the day's operations.

hohd · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:46 pm

AUS is now a larger affluent city and AA will partially succeed. While all the cities mentioned may not last, quite a few of them will stick. Still surprised at SJU and PUJ and somewhat surprising is the absence of New Orleans. WN missed a chance to add routes and UA is just content with the routes from AUS.

usdcaguy · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:48 pm

I'll bet half these routes and frequencies won't stick. Tulsa has been tried by at least two carriers from Austin, and both failed. OKC may work, however. Interesting that AA wants to run non-hub flights to STL like they actually merged with TWA.

FLYKTPA · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:50 pm

hohd wrote:
AUS is now a larger affluent city and AA will partially succeed. While all the cities mentioned may not last, quite a few of them will stick. Still surprised at SJU and PUJ and somewhat surprising is the absence of New Orleans. WN missed a chance to add routes and UA is just content with the routes from AUS.

They already fly MSY-AUS

SunsetLimited · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:50 pm

AUS-MSY/TPA also go to 2X daily.

USAirALB · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:52 pm

I can't figure out if this is part of a larger strategy to develop AUS into a DFW-Satellite/Annex type of a focus city or is specifically related to Austin O/D in general. Some of these recently announced routes are relatively underserved (like AUS-JAX/IND/CVG) and lack daily, year-round service on a carrier outside of G4. Other routes, like AUS-ELP/TUL make me think AA is attempting to feed connections over AUS.

I'm not too familiar with DFW, but is AA running out of room there? I'm wondering if AA at AUS is somewhat developing into a post-TWA ORD/STL type of situation.

DeltaRules · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:53 pm

onwFan wrote:
Runway765 wrote:
So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

What’s even more surprising is that this looks even larger than what a DL focus city at AUS would have been. One would think this might cannibalize DFW connections; but this for sure says one thing: the AUS experiment seems to have worked really well for AA. Otherwise, there is no need for AA to expand this way in a market where they already had the largest business share.

I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now" at BNA, AUS, SJC, and whatever the fourth was?

khowaga · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:55 pm

PA727 wrote:
They can't staff their current operation, yet want to duplicate capacity available just up the road? Way to fight a pointless battle when you're already losing the overall war. Wonder if the incoming morning flights will include "voluntary" HO help to staff the day's operations.

I was having the same thought - isn’t AA the carrier that said they were going to try to board flights with a single agent at the gate? That’ll be fun, especially if someone has to run down to the international gates to meet all the new arrivals.

Also, if they’re trying to go head to head with WN by offering premium seats on routes, they’re gonna need to do something about the Admiral’s Club. “Far too small” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I wonder if the increase in point to point will result in a slight decrease in DFW frequencies.

Ishrion · Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:59 pm

USAirALB wrote:
I'm not too familiar with DFW, but is AA running out of room there? I'm wondering if AA at AUS is somewhat developing into a post-TWA ORD/STL type of situation.

Let's just say it's been a bit hectic here. DFW just opened four new gates at Terminal D, which is currently used by AA. IIRC, AA has more capacity at DFW right now compared to summer 2019. Not sure about frequency though. The storms have really screwed with AA and DFW these past few weeks.

LCDFlight · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:09 pm

AA overall would have a bigger FF base than DL. I think they will protect AUS aggressively. It is a 5 million population city in the future, among the wealthiest. So it is a major strategic prize, even if it loses money right now. I won't say the losses are irrelevant, but AUS is such a big strategic prize that it's worth paying very large costs to win.

MIflyer12 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:09 pm

USAirALB wrote:
I can't figure out if this is part of a larger strategy to develop AUS into a DFW-Satellite/Annex type of a focus city or is specifically related to Austin O/D in general. Some of these recently announced routes are relatively underserved (like AUS-JAX/IND/CVG) and lack daily, year-round service on a carrier outside of G4. Other routes, like AUS-ELP/TUL make me think AA is attempting to feed connections over AUS.

There's no sense in duplicating (even in miniature) the DFW hub. It would be idiotic, in fact, to divert traffic from DFW into smaller, higher CASM aircraft; or to reduce DFW frequencies and thus connectivity across the hub.

This is an O&D play. They're hoping the non-stop fare premiums justify the higher-CASM aircraft. Sure, they may run a few connections across AUS to fill some empty planes (all a regular part of AUS and DFW yield management).

SJU and Liberia surprise me a bit. CVG? I just don't see it. AA is going in as the other carrier on a minor P2P route.

MIflyer12 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:12 pm

LCDFlight wrote:
AA overall would have a bigger FF base than DL. I think they will protect AUS aggressively. It is a 5 million population city in the future, among the wealthiest. So it is a major strategic prize, even if it loses money right now. I won't say the losses are irrelevant, but AUS is such a big strategic prize that it's worth paying very large costs to win.

It's odd to see it framed that way. SEA and BOS have 2x the domestic O&D (and yet more international) of AUS, but to read a.net Delta is just wasting money on SEA and BOS.

WN732 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:14 pm

That's a crap ton of capacity daily to ELP. Someone is not gonna last on that market.

I'm excited to see if WN is going to counter or let this slide by.

a320flyer · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:15 pm

USAirALB wrote:
I can't figure out if this is part of a larger strategy to develop AUS into a DFW-Satellite/Annex type of a focus city or is specifically related to Austin O/D in general. Some of these recently announced routes are relatively underserved (like AUS-JAX/IND/CVG) and lack daily, year-round service on a carrier outside of G4. Other routes, like AUS-ELP/TUL make me think AA is attempting to feed connections over AUS.

DL already has CVG-AUS scheduled 2x/day

Polot · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:33 pm

DeltaRules wrote:
onwFan wrote:
Runway765 wrote:
So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

What’s even more surprising is that this looks even larger than what a DL focus city at AUS would have been. One would think this might cannibalize DFW connections; but this for sure says one thing: the AUS experiment seems to have worked really well for AA. Otherwise, there is no need for AA to expand this way in a market where they already had the largest business share.

I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now" at BNA, AUS, SJC, and whatever the fourth was?

You don’t become a competitive market’s “favorite” airline by exclusively flying a bunch of capacity to your pre existing hubs. Your first statement implies P2P routes that are important to the market in question.

DL’s big mistake was referring to AUS as a focus city before they were able/willing to give it focus, opening up the opportunity for other airlines to strike first. They telegraphed their long term plan way too soon.

joeblow10 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:38 pm

The Central America/Caribbean expansion actually doesn’t surprise me much.

Oddly enough SY seems to have been the carrier a few years back to figure out there seems to be a lot of pent up demand from TX down South. IIRC they were planning to start Intl. stuff from AUS last summer as well before COVID hit. The only difference is SY seemed to have ran the intl. stuff during the summer from DFW/TX, AA seems to suggest it may focus on the winter?

OA412 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:51 pm

Please keep this on topic. We've already had to remove several off topic, low quality, and childish posts.

umichman · Thu Jun 10, 2021 2:59 pm

DeltaRules wrote:
onwFan wrote:
Runway765 wrote:
So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

What’s even more surprising is that this looks even larger than what a DL focus city at AUS would have been. One would think this might cannibalize DFW connections; but this for sure says one thing: the AUS experiment seems to have worked really well for AA. Otherwise, there is no need for AA to expand this way in a market where they already had the largest business share.

I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now" at BNA, AUS, SJC, and whatever the fourth was?

They already announced they were dropping BNA and SJC focus city efforts. AUS and RDU were the two left. They also apparently don't consider CVG a focus city, but it retains a substantial amount of P2P flying. Which I guess goes back to your point that it's not so much about P2P routes, but more about capturing a percentage of the traffic in markets that are seeing substantial growth. CVG has enough O&D demand to retain P2P flights to larger markets, but DL likely does not see much growth there and hence dropped the focus city designation.

n9801f · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:07 pm

A decisive move by American.

No spin, idle chatter, or dithering. Just action.

CanadianRedneck · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:17 pm

DeltaRules wrote:
onwFan wrote:
Runway765 wrote:
So they are building another mini-hub from AUS when they already have one right up the road? Wow. DL should have been the one doing this, they were way too slow to act.

Where are they going to fit these flights in? The AUS terminal only has 33 gates.

What’s even more surprising is that this looks even larger than what a DL focus city at AUS would have been. One would think this might cannibalize DFW connections; but this for sure says one thing: the AUS experiment seems to have worked really well for AA. Otherwise, there is no need for AA to expand this way in a market where they already had the largest business share.

I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now" at BNA, AUS, SJC, and whatever the fourth was?

RDU, but you make a great point.

Brickell305 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:18 pm

joeblow10 wrote:
The Central America/Caribbean expansion actually doesn’t surprise me much.

Oddly enough SY seems to have been the carrier a few years back to figure out there seems to be a lot of pent up demand from TX down South. IIRC they were planning to start Intl. stuff from AUS last summer as well before COVID hit. The only difference is SY seemed to have ran the intl. stuff during the summer from DFW/TX, AA seems to suggest it may focus on the winter?

Agreed on the Caribbean/Central American markets. The industry is still in leisure mode and while people are looking to take vacations, those places make sense to serve. When things revert more to normal, they can reallocate those resources as necessary.

LAX772LR · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:18 pm

asuflyer wrote:
American adds nonstop service to . . . Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)

Thus AUS joins MSY as the only FAA-medium hub city with scheduled nonstops to Central America. Nice.

(yes, I'm aware HOU has nonstops as well too, making them an FAA-medium airport, though not gateway nor city system, for obvious reasons).

hohd wrote:
somewhat surprising is the absence of New Orleans.

Huh? They already had AUS-MSY, and they're expanding it here as well.

DeltaRules wrote:
I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now"

Well, a carrier BECOMES "their favorite airline" by offering targeted customers a significant value that other carriers do not.
Otherwise, what reason would those customers have to give that airline their contracts, or prioritize that airline's services?

Talk is cheap: AA is providing metal nonstops (often multiple) to a bevy of destinations. DL would've provided what; a smile, a handshake, and a connection in Atlanta?

I'm trying to find the logic in your statement, and am coming up short.
I mean, these are transportation companies-- so exactly what could/would DL offer to HVCs in Austin, of greater value than a slew of both domestic and int'l nonstops??

dabpit · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:36 pm

MIflyer12 wrote:
USAirALB wrote:
I can't figure out if this is part of a larger strategy to develop AUS into a DFW-Satellite/Annex type of a focus city or is specifically related to Austin O/D in general. Some of these recently announced routes are relatively underserved (like AUS-JAX/IND/CVG) and lack daily, year-round service on a carrier outside of G4. Other routes, like AUS-ELP/TUL make me think AA is attempting to feed connections over AUS.

There's no sense in duplicating (even in miniature) the DFW hub. It would be idiotic, in fact, to divert traffic from DFW into smaller, higher CASM aircraft; or to reduce DFW frequencies and thus connectivity across the hub.

This is an O&D play. They're hoping the non-stop fare premiums justify the higher-CASM aircraft. Sure, they may run a few connections across AUS to fill some empty planes (all a regular part of AUS and DFW yield management).

SJU and Liberia surprise me a bit. CVG? I just don't see it. AA is going in as the other carrier on a minor P2P route.

AA is not trying to duplicate DFW in anyway or diverting traffic/feed away from DFW. AA is making a long term move on AUS with this move. Also of note would be the corporate contracts (business travel will rebound) that AA has with companies that are moving to DFW and/or AUS, this keeps those corporate flyers (making good money) flying with them for leisure trips building that FF base.

SATexan · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:43 pm

AUS-LIR and PUJ are 4 weekly. Heck, DFW didn't even have a service to PUJ not too long ago and DFW-LIR was always 2/3 weekly for a long time IIRC. But AUS-SJU being a daily service is very surprising! Also, I am glad that AA has stepped into AUS-ELP. There are too many passengers (non-corporate) flying this route on a weekly basis; home in Austin and working in ELP and vice-versa. WN had monopolized this route and it's nice to have some competition, although I have to admit that operating it thrice daily is stretching it.

seatback · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:52 pm

I think these routes might last longer than we think. If there's a projected 5M Austin area population within the coming years, AA is making a strategic effort and smart move to build early.

I wonder if we'll see a crew base?

Ishrion · Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:58 pm

Does anyone have the PDEW for AUS to Liberia and San Jose, Costa Rica?

In AUS’ 2040 Masterplan, they anticipated receiving 4x weekly flights to San Jose, CR by the end of 2020... on United.

Either way, it’s definitely interesting American’s going for Liberia. I’m not familiar with the similarities and differences between the two markets. Would it be possible to sustain both AUS-LIR/SJO?

AC4500 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:13 pm

Ishrion wrote:
In AUS’ 2040 Masterplan, they anticipated receiving 4x weekly flights to San Jose, CR by the end of 2020... on United.

It's interesting that they had a specific airline in mind for operating such a low-frequency route.

GSOtoIND · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:15 pm

From the Indianapolis Airport Authority press release (source: https://www.ind.com/about/media/media-releases/indy-airport-announces-new-nonstop-flight-to-austin), IND-AUS starts once daily from September 8th, then goes double daily on October 2nd. IND will be on Republic E75s, but it'll be interesting to see if Envoy flies the majority of these routes that don't go to an RPA base.

Cubsrule · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:19 pm

Ishrion wrote:
Either way, it’s definitely interesting American’s going for Liberia. I’m not familiar with the similarities and differences between the two markets. Would it be possible to sustain both AUS-LIR/SJO?

SJO is more VFR/business, less leisure (though it’s not TGU or MGA - there is still an appreciable leisure component).

And I’m not sure why folks are surprised to see AA starting the likes of SJO and SJU. AA has deep, historical strength in Latin America that will help get northbound and VFR traffic onto the flights in addition to the demand ex-AUS.

cledaybuck · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:37 pm

seatback wrote:
I think these routes might last longer than we think. If there's a projected 5M Austin area population within the coming years, AA is making a strategic effort and smart move to build early.

I wonder if we'll see a crew base?

Where is this 5M population idea coming from? The 2020 estimate for the Austin MSA is about 2.3 M.

dfdubflyer · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:43 pm

Honestly even if half the additions ex-AUS stick 18 months from now AA's buildup would still be impressive and cement them as the legacy of choice. I'm good friends who is switching his loyalty from DL to AA as the nonstops + nearby DFW just became too much to walk away from..... AVOD or no AVOD

N649DL · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:44 pm

tphuang wrote:
AA is picking the wrong fight here.

AA is trying to beat DL to the punch since they officially announced AUS as a Focus City, but hasn't added any routes. It's not so much about WN here, plus AA has always been strong at AUS with select P2P routes over the years.

MIflyer12 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:44 pm

Five million is a long way away. (I won't say never.) You don't add flights today for population levels 25 years from now. Ask SJC, BNA, or LAS the value of AA (or HP) commitments 25 years into the future.

UpNAWAy · Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:53 pm

Its probably the hottest business market in the country right now with astronomical growth projections. They are not doing this for twenty years out they are doing it for right now.

FlyingElvii · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:05 pm

GSOtoIND wrote:
From the Indianapolis Airport Authority press release (source: https://www.ind.com/about/media/media-releases/indy-airport-announces-new-nonstop-flight-to-austin), IND-AUS starts once daily from September 8th, then goes double daily on October 2nd. IND will be on Republic E75s, but it'll be interesting to see if Envoy flies the majority of these routes that don't go to an RPA base.

I would think CVG goes YX as well, but who knows?

FlyingElvii · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:08 pm

cledaybuck wrote:
seatback wrote:
I think these routes might last longer than we think. If there's a projected 5M Austin area population within the coming years, AA is making a strategic effort and smart move to build early.

I wonder if we'll see a crew base?

Where is this 5M population idea coming from? The 2020 estimate for the Austin MSA is about 2.3 M.

The area between AUS and San Antonio is filling up fast. The two will become one metroplex in the future. And Some of these flights will draw from SAT as well, beating a connection over DFW, ATL, or ORD.

UALFAson · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:28 pm

LAX772LR wrote:
DeltaRules wrote:
I think people keep overestimating what DL's focus cities were going to be. Weren't they more "We want to be your favorite airline!" as opposed to "Add a bunch of P2P routes in addition to hubs because these cities are America's trendy, pet cities right now"

Well, a carrier BECOMES "their favorite airline" by offering targeted customers a significant value that other carriers do not.
Otherwise, what reason would those customers have to give that airline their contracts, or prioritize that airline's services?

Talk is cheap: AA is providing metal nonstops (often multiple) to a bevy of destinations. DL would've provided what; a smile, a handshake, and a connection in Atlanta?

I'm trying to find the logic in your statement, and am coming up short.
I mean, these are transportation companies-- so exactly what could/would DL offer to HVCs in Austin, of greater value than a slew of both domestic and int'l nonstops??

I think you 2 are saying the same thing and it's a point I agree with, which is that it's all very well and good for DL to dub these 4 places "focus cities" but unless they add P2P service outside of their hubs, which they never did here in BNA or there in AUS, what exactly is the "focus" that DL is putting on them? DL might have been planning on announcing such service if COVID didn't happen, but it did, and now other airlines are choosing to pre-emptively strike. Hopefully lesson learned for DL.

nc3rd · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:39 pm

tphuang wrote:
AA is picking the wrong fight here.

If AA wont fight for central texas, then there is no where to fight. Add in BA to LHR and you have a really strong presence here. Good work.

LAX772LR · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:47 pm

UALFAson wrote:
I think you 2 are saying the same thing

.........we're saying the exact opposite thing.

Brickell305 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 5:59 pm

Cubsrule wrote:
Ishrion wrote:
Either way, it’s definitely interesting American’s going for Liberia. I’m not familiar with the similarities and differences between the two markets. Would it be possible to sustain both AUS-LIR/SJO?

SJO is more VFR/business, less leisure (though it’s not TGU or MGA - there is still an appreciable leisure component).

And I’m not sure why folks are surprised to see AA starting the likes of SJO and SJU. AA has deep, historical strength in Latin America that will help get northbound and VFR traffic onto the flights in addition to the demand ex-AUS.

Northbound VFR traffic from those places to Austin?

hbernal1 · Thu Jun 10, 2021 6:02 pm

So much for DL having a focus city. It feels like AUS has turned into a never-ending game of chicken between AA and WN. I'm curious as to where all these new flights are going to fit now when AUS was pretty gate-constrained pre-COVID, like others have pointed out.

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