American cuts a whopping 21 Austin routes in major network shake-up

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Maybe Austin wasn’t as hot as American Airlines had expected.

Over the weekend, the airline filed a major schedule change for service at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), and the details aren’t pretty.

American is slashing a whopping 21 routes from Austin, Cirum schedules show. This effectively reverses much of the carrier’s growth in the Texas capital that was announced during the pandemic.

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You’ll find the full list of cuts in the table below, and they’re all depicted on the map as well.

American confirmed the cuts with the following statement.

“Austin remains an important market for American as we continuously evaluate our network. Together with our partners, American will continue to offer customers service to 15 of the top 20 markets from AUS, while continuing to offer one-stop connections across our comprehensive global network to more than 350 destinations around the world.”

After these changes, Austin will be left with American service to most of the carrier’s hubs except for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA). It’ll also have access to a handful of point-to-point destinations, such as Nashville, Las Vegas and Aspen, Colorado.

While the sheer number of routes getting slashed is noteworthy, American says it’ll still offer 53% more daily seats and 19 additional daily departures next year, compared to 2019.

Notably, almost all of the routes getting cut were operated by regional affiliates on behalf of American Eagle. Ever since the changes were first filed, there’s been talk among aviation insiders that the carrier needed to scrap these flights due to scope clauses with its mainline pilots.

These scope clauses are typically designed to limit how much regional flying American can do. Regional operations typically have lower costs than service operated by American’s mainline pilots and flight attendants, so these contracts are designed to limit the incentive to outsource flying to regional affiliates.

Of course, some of the slashed routes were operated on American mainline jets, so no matter how you cut it, Austin seemingly wasn’t working for American.

That’s especially surprising because American spent much of the pandemic doubling down on service to Austin, leading some to wonder whether the airport would eventually become a focus city for American.

The airline kicked off the Austin growth in March 2021 with 10 new routes. Just three months later, the carrier followed up with 14 more new routes there, including a mix of domestic and international destinations to cities in Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

“We were thinking about this move pre-pandemic. All the elements of the pandemic came together to help us launch service now. But we are certainly thinking long-term here. We are at the front-end of our growth in Austin,” Brian Znotins, American’s network chief, told TPG at the time.

Since then, the carrier added a mix of both business- and leisure-focused routes in a long-term play to capitalize on the growth the city has seen from major companies moving (or expanding) there. American wanted to position itself as the carrier of choice for locals, regardless of whether they travel for work or for pleasure.

Fast forward two years later, and American’s big Austin competitors, namely Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, will now enjoy monopolies on some of the routes that American is exiting.

It remains to be seen if American will scale back its recently announced new 15,000-square-foot Admirals Club at AUS. The original plans call for floor-to-ceiling windows, various seating areas, locally inspired art installations and live music from local artists.

If you’re booked on any of the affected Austin routes, American will automatically rebook you on connecting itineraries. Note that you can opt for a full refund if the revised schedule doesn’t work for you.