American Airlines to drop flights from Los Angeles and Phoenix to London
Gary Leff July 13, 2024
First reported by aviation watchdog group JonNYC, American Airlines will drop its three daily round trip flights between Los Angeles and London Heathrow when the IATA winter season begins on Oct. 27, 2024. It will also suspend service from Phoenix to London Heathrow during the winter season from Oct. 27, 2024 to March 28, 2025. These changes are expected to be incorporated into schedules this weekend.
There were further announcements made internally this afternoon.
I think October 27th is the stop date.”
— John NYC (@xJonNYC) July 12, 2024
The total number of flights between Los Angeles and London Heathrow will drop from 10 to nine daily, while the American Airlines and BA JV will drop from six to five. Virgin and United each operate two flights a day on the route, but United will seasonally reduce to one flight in the winter, bringing the total number of flights on the route to eight through the spring. Meanwhile, British Airways serves Phoenix with an Airbus A350-100.
According to an American Airlines spokesperson,
American Airlines will adjust service from London (LHR) as part of our ongoing evaluation of our network. Working with our partner British Airways, we will continue to operate service to LHR from more than 25 destinations across the U.S. We are proactively offering alternative travel arrangements to affected customers.
JonNYC reports that one of Heathrow’s slots will be used to retune Chicago’s frequencies.
This comes after American Airlines increased its summer capacity on European routes by more than the industry average compared to last year, and Delta’s earnings report and lower profit forecast suggested it had too many seats relative to demand.
Demand for trans-Pacific flights is always significantly lower in winter, which is a challenge faced by low-cost trans-Atlantic airlines that do not have seasonal hubs to send their planes to. It is easy to fill planes to Europe in the summer and make a profit, but business dries up in the winter. It is unclear whether American Airlines will take advantage of the decline in trans-Atlantic flights of its Boeing 777s by retrofitting its Boeing 777-300ERs, eliminating first class and installing new business class suites, or whether it will increase its domestic widebody flights and Cancun service.