Find out why American Airlines won’t give up on Los Angeles

Due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), American Airlines is reducing its services to mainland China alongside with other American carriers. There’s also a report that American Airlines might not reinstate routes departing from Los Angeles to mainland China. But, that case should not be viewed as American Airlines giving up or pulling out of Los Angeles.

Way back in 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic also wreaked havoc on international air travel globally. It took a couple of months up until the epidemic cleared up for the airline companies to restore their capacity and passenger numbers to finally stabilize. With that, the statement of the American Airlines that it will not see service to mainland China commencing from Los Angeles does not necessarily mean that the airline is completely done with the city. This approach is needed to avoid losing money on an expensive long-haul route. The airline just needs to wait and see before undertaking the next step.

One of the reasons why American Airlines won’t give up on Los Angeles flight is that it is a major city for all three major airlines in the United States namely Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines. The given airline companies do operate several transcontinental and even long-haul routes out of Los Angeles (LAX).

To date, Los Angeles is still a major gateway for American Airlines. It will also introduce new flights to New Zealand. This only proves that Los Angeles plays a significant part in the airlines’ game. Also, there’s no other airport that sees as much as transpacific service on American Airlines that is comparable with Los Angeles. Besides, Los Angeles is going further strong due to the new joint-venture with Qantas. American Airlines needs to offer connections for those Qantas passengers to have benefits for both airline companies. In line with this, it will require American Airlines to continue to offer connections to specified destinations across the United States.

Of all the fleet of American Airlines, A321T stands out. This is known as a subset of Airbus A321. It is lightly configured in a premium configuration that is well suited for transcontinental routes. To give you an idea, it flies on the heavily contested Los Angeles going New York. On the other hand, Delta Airlines always flies on the given route but it makes use of its Boeing 767-300 aircraft. United Airlines makes use of its 787-10s.