American to Launch Ten New Routes from LaGuardia

As we reported earlier this month, American Airlines Group has announced the planned network adjustments it will make to meet the required divestiture of slots and related assets at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) and New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) that will enable American Airlines and US Airways to complete their merger.

Although this will see American no longer operate year-round, daily non-stop service to 17 destinations from Washington Reagan National as a result of the 52 slot pair divestitures, its activities at New York LaGuardia will actually expand to include ten new regional markets, despite 17 slot pair divestitures, and the closure of routes to Atlanta, Cleveland and Minneapolis.

American will add flights to Charlottesville, Va.; Little Rock, Ark.; Roanoke, Va.; Dayton, Ohio; Louisville, Ky.; Wilmington, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; Norfolk, Va.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Richmond, Va. from April 1, 2014 and the carrier opened reservations for these flights on January 26, 2014. With the schedules now live we look in greater detail at these proposed flights.

The markets will be served on at least a six times weekly basis offering at least one weekday departure although some routes will see up to four rotation per day. All ten destinations are presently served from New York LaGuardia by Delta Air Lines and its regional partners although forward schedules show that it will end its flights to Little Rock and Roanoke at the end of March 2014.

In the table below we look at each of the markets in turn and look at current O&D demand on the routes. All the markets (with the exception of Knoxville) were previously served by US Airways up until July 2012 , while American Airlines has flown to Louisville (September 2007 – November 2008) during the past ten years.

NOTE: O&D Demand is bi-directional for the year ending November 2013