Recent air travel troubles have continued into the new year. As winter weather storms disrupt operations and surging COVID infections create crew shortages, every major U.S. airline has been forced to cancel hundreds to thousands of flights daily for nearly four weeks now. On Jan. 9 alone, United Airlines was forced to cancel 180 flights, Alaska Airlines cut 111, and American Airlines canceled 77, according to the dating tracking service Flight Aware. But these are just the last-minute cancellations. Some airlines are now trying to get ahead of the chaos by paring down their schedules in advance. In fact, American Airlines has already decided to cut flights from six major cities, starting in February. Read on to find out which cities will be affected by this decision.
RELATED: Delta Will No Longer Fly to These 3 Cities, Starting Jan. 9.
American Airlines will start cutting flights from six major cities in February.
iStockIn an effort to manage ongoing disruptions, American Airlines will soon be reducing the number of flights it operates from six major cities, Simple Flying reported. Starting in February, flights from Los Angeles to El Paso will be cut from three a day to just one, while Los Angeles to Denver will be getting its service reduced from up to three daily flights to just six weekly flights. Flights from Phoenix, Dallas, and Chicago will also be affected next month. American's service from Phoenix to Long Beach, California, will drop from three daily to ten weekly, while Dallas to Columbia, Missouri, and Chicago to Baltimore will both lose three daily flights in favor of 12 flights each week.
RELATED: Alaska Airlines Is Getting Rid of This on Flights, Effective Immediately.
The airline's cuts will also extend into March.
ShutterstockWhile certain cities will start facing route reduction in February, American Airlines has also announced flight cuts for March. The airline's flights from New York to Raleigh will go from five a day to only three a day, while both Phoenix to Santa Fe and Miami to Cleveland will lose two daily services in favor of just one flight per day in March. All in all, six major cities will be affected by the American Airlines cuts in February and March: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Phoenix.
American Airlines is not exiting these cities entirely.
iStockThese flight cuts might go unnoticed by most passengers, as American Airlines is not dropping flights altogether from any of the affected cities. "Unlike other airlines, American is not exiting any of the cities. As a result, impacted customers will have the ability to alter their itinerary and find something comparable through another hub or on a different flight time," Simple Flying explained. "In addition, any customers who choose not to accept an alternate itinerary and their flight is canceled can receive a refund."
That's not the only good news. According to Simple Flying, some flight reductions are only set to last a few weeks. Flights from Los Angeles to El Paso and Denver are being reduced to once a day in February, but American Airlines is currently scheduled to return two-a-day service to both cities in March.
RELATED: For more travel news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
But it is cutting flights from entire international cities.
iStockAmerican Airlines' domestic cuts might seem minor, but in early December, the airline announced plans for a major set of international cancellations. According to USA Today, American Airlines will cut all service to Edinburgh, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; and Hong Kong in the summer of 2022. And several European destinations previously offered in 2019 will not return this summer: Berlin, Budapest, Dubrovnik, Prague, and Reykjavik. The airline is discontinuing service to most of these international destinations due to an ongoing shortage of Boeing 787 aircrafts.
"Boeing continues to be unable to deliver the 787s we have on order, including as many as 13 aircraft that were slated to be in our fleet by this winter," American's Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja said in an internal letter to employees, per USA Today. "Without these widebodies, we simply won't be able to fly as much internationally as we had planned next summer or as we did in summer 2019."
RELATED: Never Do This When Your Flight Is Canceled, Travel Expert Warns.
