American Airlines is delaying the launch of five international routes it had planned to start this year to 2021 as it anticipates the demand drop caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will extend through much if not all of 2020.
Three new year-round routes—between: Philadelphia (PHL) and Casablanca (CMN), Morocco; Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Krakow (KRK), Poland; and Seattle (SEA) and Bangalore (BLR), India—have all been pushed to 2021.
In addition, two seasonal winter routes to New Zealand that had been set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 have been postponed. Los Angeles (LAX) to Christchurch (CHC) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Auckland (AKL) will now both launch in the fourth quarter of 2021.
In total, American will suspend more than 60% of its international capacity this summer compared to the same seasonal peak period in 2019. This includes an 80% reduction in transpacific capacity, a 65% reduction in transatlantic capacity and a 48% reduction in Latin America capacity.
“These changes are due to significantly decreased customer demand as well as government travel restrictions—both related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” American said in a statement.
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