With the Department of Justice ramping up its investigation of American’s partnership with JetBlue at the behest of competitors, this ‘Northeastern alliance’ is out today with exciting new routes demonstrating the additional flying that becomes possible through the partnership – and just how much more formidable the competition with Delta and United becomes in the Northeast as a result.

New Non-Stop Service From New York JFK To Delhi, India

American Airlines announced that starting October 31 they will fly New York JFK – Delhi using a Boeing 777-200 three times a week, and operating daily between November 17 through January 3 for the holidays.

American Airlines Boeing 777-200 ‘Concept D’ Business Class

This comes on top of American’s plan to fly Seattle – Bangalore, announced right before the pandemic. They’re promoting New York JFK – Delhi as additional India service, though the Seattle flight hasn’t started yet and will face significant competition. Last month the airline shared with employees that plans to launch the route were still uncertain (“has a lot of cloud around it”).

While they plan to launch Seattle – Bangalore this fall, it’s a business travel-dependent route, and is “reliant on a return of business travel.” (Amazon and Microsoft have to resume travel to India for the flight to work.) That hasn’t happened yet of course. In fact American won’t be flying Seattle – London in July due to lack of demand – but will add a Miami – Las Vegas Boeing 777-200 flight with the aircraft that month.

American also “ha[s] to keep an eye on” United’s Bangalore service, when American announced their route they were going to be the only U.S. – Bangalore non-stop in the market and United’s San Francisco flight will have more local traffic.

New Routes Out Of New York And Boston

In addition to new non-stop service to India, American will add flying:

• New York LaGuardia – Houston Intercontinental, Oklahoma City, and Omaha
• Boston – Toronto, Cincinnati, and St. Louis

From	To	Aircraft	Frequency	Starts
Boston	Cincinnati	E175	3x Daily	11/2/2021
Boston	St. Louis	A319	2x Daily	11/2/2021
Boston	Toronto	E175	3x Daily	11/2/2021
JFK	Delhi	777-200	3x weekly	10/31/2021
LGA	Houston IAH	A319/E175	3x Daily	11/2/2021
LGA	Oklahoma City	E175	Daily	11/2/2021
LGA	Omaha	E175	Daily	11/2/2021

More Premium Service

American will operate their Los Angeles – Boston flights using the 3-cabin premium-heavy Airbus A321T. Since JetBlue runs the route with ‘Mint’ service American needs to offer a similar product in order to make the partnership seamless.

As previously announced, American also plans to drop 50 seat regional jets out of the New York and Washington National markets, upgauging to two-cabin regional jets. In DC they have a new concourse which supports larger aircraft, replacing dreaded bus gate 35X, and in New York this means they’ll be flying more seats which they need to do in order to avoid losing additional New York takeoff and landing slots under a deal with the government to approve the JetBlue partnership.

American Eagle ERJ-145

An Airside Connector Bus At JFK

At New York JFK American announced plans for “seamless connection between Terminal 5 and Terminal 8″ via ” secure-side transportation” which will begin this summer, something I reported in March.

American and JetBlue are close to introducing an airside connection bus between their terminals at New York JFK

— gary leff (@garyleff) March 13, 2021