American Airlines Is Cutting a Bunch of International Routes Next Year
The cuts are largely being caused by an aircraft shortage.
Although more and more people are looking to get out and see the world, variants be damned, airlines are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. Staffing shortages, and now aircraft shortages, have plagued the industry. Now, American Airlines is cutting several international routes as a result.
Due to delays in getting Boeing 787s to the airline, American is cutting service to select destinations, according to AFAR. Those destinations being eliminated include Edinburgh, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; and Hong Kong. Additionally, American won't return to several markets it served in 2019, including Berlin, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Prague, Czech Republic; and Reykjavik, Iceland.
"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. 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," Vasu Raja, American's Chief Revenue Officer, told employees in a memo obtained by AFAR.
The cuts don't stop there either. American plans to "temporarily, but significantly" reduce service to cities in the Asia-Pacific region. That includes Shanghai and Beijing, China, and Sydney, Australia. American will also push back the launch of a planned service to Bangalore, India, from Seattle.
On the upside, American plans to instead shift resources to enhance domestic and short-haul service in 2022.