American Airlines didn’t rebuild its Philadelphia transatlantic hub coming out of the pandemic. Europe opened later than travel returned to the U.S. market. And American found that they did better flying planes to Mexico than across the Pond. When demand for travel to Europe came roaring back, the airline didn’t have as many flights scheduled, and they didn’t have planes either – having retired their Boeing 757, Boeing 767, and Airbus A330 fleets early in the pandemic and facing delivery delays from Boeing on new 787s.
Without rebuilding transatlantic flying, they also didn’t rebuild Philadephia’s domestic route network to pre-pandemic levels. Those flights used to connect people onto international departures, but those international departures hadn’t fully returned so the domestic flights didn’t make as much sense either.
Now they’re adding 3 new transatlantic routes from Philadelphia (Copenhagen, Nice, and Naples) after announcing the transfer of their New York JFK – Doha flight to Philadelphia.
And they’re adding back Philadelphia flying, such as a new route to San Antonio, and adding back Philadelphia – New York LaGuardia. This latter,
- squats slots in New York, because with the end of the Northeast Alliance with JetBlue American no longer has a New York strategy
- hopes to serve some of the New York market through Philadelphia rather than non-stop.
American has eliminated its second New York – Rome flight as part of providing aircraft for its announced new transatlantic service.
Cranky Flier, in writing about the announced new route, disses on American for having previously focused on New York. But this gets it all wrong.
It is, as a side note, good to see Philadelphia getting love again. These new routes are about adding network value by putting new destinations on the map and then routing people through Philly to get there. The distraction of the now-dead Northeast Alliance had American put more airplanes into places from New York that didn’t add that same kind of network value.
“Network value” is all about connecting traffic. They compete with Delta and United for passengers who have an option to fly through Newark, Boston, Washington Dulles, New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare and Atlanta.
In contrast, American’s business in New York, with its JetBlue partnership, was largely about serving the New York market. JetBlue wasn’t so much providing connecting passengers for American (people transferring from JetBlue flights to New York JFK onto American’s international flights) as much as providing local customers for American’s flights. Non-stop means competing with a different product, that consumers will generally also pay a premium for.
- New York is a much bigger local market than Philadelphia
- Take its New York JFK – Doha flight. That was about 80% New York passengers heading to the Mideast and Indian Subcontinent, places like Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Dhaka. This was one-stop service for New Yorkers to where New Yorkers were going.
- Instead Philadelphia is all about connections. People connect to Philadelphia, will take the flight to Doha, but almost none of those passengers are flying to Doha. They are, again, heading to Pakistan, or smaller cities in India.
- So moving that Doha flight to Philadelphia has ‘network value’ but it is low value. It competes for double connections, which means lower yields. American still has its high costs, but they’ll earn lower fares.
And that doesn’t even begin to get into the hidden importance of competing in the New York market. Once American began partnering with JetBlue, and not walking away from New York any longer, they began signing up more customers for the AAdvantage program. In fact New York was their biggest market for new signups. And that converts people to co-brand credit card customers. And New York is the most important spend market in the country.
Selling AAdvantage miles is a multi-billion dollar business with a 52% margin while all of American including the sale of miles earns about a 10% margin. Offering a product that’s relevant to the New York market matters for New York card signups and wallet share, as American learned.
Cranky notes that American will have more year-round routes and fewer seasonal routes from Philadelphia to Europe in 2024 than they did pre-pandemic. Eventually this will become even more tilted towards year-round as American takes (delayed) delivery of Airbus A321XLR aircraft that can make a route work on fewer passengers than a Boeing 787. There’s some value in a connecting hub to Europe, but a hub with greater local traffic and far greater card spend is more valuable still.
Delta was able to grow in New York because US Airways sold them their New York hub, more or less. And that ultimately made American Airlines far less competitive. When US Airways took over at American they tried two strategies in New York:
- Serve people from other cities wanting to travel to New York, rather than New Yorkers
- Offer a ’boutique’ operation serving primarily partner hubs in Europe and the West Coast
But neither one worked. Offering New York flights to people for whom they work well as a one-off is a recipe for lower fares than competitors. American kept cutting routes, entering a death spiral there. They decided not to compete there prior to the pandemic.
While they described themselves as ‘too small to win, too big to give up’ American simply squatted on their resources in New York so others couldn’t take them. They actually did have to forfeit 7 slots from underuse, though.
American saw themselves losing money or breaking even, but largely because they did the accounting wrong, not looking at the most lucrative piece of their business (co-brand card). They found a partner in JetBlue that gave them the necessary scale to offer as much to New Yorkers as Delta and United from Newark. But that was struck down by a district court judge, and JetBlue decided not to appeal to focus instead of its (more anti-competitive) acquisition of Spirit Airlines.
So New Yorkers are left with less competition, one less viable competitor and an airline shifting its focus to “Filthadelphia.”
But New York wasn’t a distraction from Philadelphia, it was a better place to focus limited resources that did not work out – in part because of a change in administration, part because of whom they drew as a judge, and part because of JetBlue’s deal to buy Spirit that came after. Philadelphia on its own may even work to some degree, but ultimately Philadelphia is not New York. And whether American will admit it or not, they realize this is true – now that they have one executive in charge of all revenue from flying and from credit card issuers.
The Irony is that the DOJ has caused LESS competition in the NYC market by fighting the NEA than letting it happen.
And Philly is a Sh*thole both as a city and as an airport.
One thing you aren’t taking into account, is how absolutely horrendous the drive to JFK airport is. Even for many people in New York. To put it in perspective, I just checked on Google maps so as of right now (Noon on a Wednesday) it’s 90 miles or so to PHL, with a drive time of 1 hr and 30 minutes. It’s 60 miles to JFK, with a drive time of 1hr and 50 minutes. With it most likely taking longer, as it nearly always does. (I’ve seen it 3 hours before)
I’m in NJ, so largely stick with Newark, but sometimes I’m forced to use those two airports, and given a choice I always go with PHL, just to avoid what not only is a long, but a very irritating drive.
“Philadelphia is not New York” – tell that to all the New Yorkers buying up 900k houses in my neighborhood.
There’s a saying here – “No one likes us we don’t care.”
You’ve been the CEO of how many airlines?
So AA is switching (back) to making PHL a connection hub. Is it my favorite airport? No. But it is not the hell hole people make it out to be. The food options are plentiful and not all bad. The lounges are OK. The airspace is slightly less constricted than NY (or DC). So I can see this working out OK.
The real challenge for AA is to replicate the success of CLT as a domestic transfer hub, and build PHL as a domestic -> international transfer hub. PHL has been “half pregnant” for the last couple of years. AA initially wanted to build their trans-Atlantic hub here, then went back to wanting that at JFK, and now is back to their PHL strategy. (Disclaimer: when I say “success of CLT” I am referring to the connecting passenger load that they manage to handle through the airport. It is leading to some serious passenger experience challenges but operationally it is pretty impressive).
I agree that the direct passenger market in the NY area is far greater than at PHL. And that is why the PHL strategy should be focused on transfer pax. If they manage to run this successfully they might have a winner.
@Nate – the flip side to “No one likes us and we don’t care” is “Philadelphia isn’t as bad as Philadelphians say it is.” I have a tee that says that with a picture of Frank Rizzo. No on is tougher on Philly than Philadelphians themselves.
I don’t mind PHL, but lately I’ve been trekking to JFK to catch JAL to get to Asia. I was going to book QR in April PHL-DOH-SGN for ~$3k, but now that QR has dropped PHL the cost of flying one-stop to Saigon has gone up to $7k. So I’ll trek to JFK for QR.
@AndyS: profound sentiment. Maybe you should run for office. As a “Filthadelphian” who has lived in NYC for a few years too I’d say that (very old) term no longer really fits. The city has great restaurants. one of the biggest city park system in the country, and all the big city perks without insane housing prices. Usually those pronouncing places as sh*tholes either have never spent much time there or ascribe that term to any place with significant urban and minority populations.
As for the new flights, glad to see PHL-LGA come back but it’s fairly useless because it almost always is offered with connections to flights at JFK. Big hassle and misconnect risk and it’s easier to just take Amtrak and LIRR to JFK directly.
BTW, looks like QR has already killed the PHL-DOH flight. Bloggers were saying that both AA and QR would continue to run from Philly- but I’ve already gotten my cancellation notice for a flight in December and QR flights have disappeared from the schedule. Looks like QR will sell the AA codeshare instead
@AndyS unless you are from Philly or live in Philly no one in Philly cares what you think about it.
The intelligence of AA’s decision to pivot its focus back to PHL depends on how they are defining success. EVEN if AA’s ex-JKF TATL flights were will with 60% or 70% with O+D traffic out of NYC and ex-PHL’s flights are half that, it does not means AA’s ex-JFK flights are strategically better. If AA does not have enough feed into JFK to full the rest of the plane and their product does not enable it compete with other carrier for the high-revenue pax their ex-JFK flights are not going to perform as well as the ex-PHL flights.
AA has made its bed as a largely domestic carrier. As a result, its international strategy has to support that broader strategy with deep route maps out of select domestic airports (DFW, MIA, PHL, +/- ORD). But, let’s be clear, AA is only going to succeed in markets where it maintains a fortress hub. Don’t believe me and think JFK is not enough proof, just look at their operations in ORD and LAX.
Can any carrier effectively make JFK a hub now? It sounds like acquiring additional slots would be subject to regulation and I suspect Jet Blue will may have to give up some NYC slots as part of their merger with Spirit. As @Mangar noted about commute times, connections between airports is a hard sell to flyers.
@Larry
As another former Filthadelphian I would happily move back any day. It’s the best kept secret in the NE. Great location. Lower cost of living than DC, NYC and BOS. Amazing green spaces. Resilient economy. Incredible educational institutions. World-class cultural scene. Amazing dining scene. Phenomenal healthcare. There a reason why so many New Yorkers are relocating to Philly.
The city has character and a sense of community. Far better than all the new boom cities that lack a soul.
@Larry – agree with your sentiments. I could never afford to live within a block of Central Park, but I live across the street from Fairmount Park – which is massive. And Philly is no cleaner or filthier than most major U.S. cities. Anyone can anecdotally say “I was just there and it is dirty….” Man, the last time I stayed south of Times Square, the street (40th St.) was a friggin war zone. YMMV.
As for QR selling the code-share – it hasn’t started yet. I was about to buy PHL-DOH-SGN on QR last week, and put it off. Now QR is not selling it all. Perhaps they will add the code share some point, but it hasn’t yet.
@ramcm7 – are asking whether any new entrant can make JFK a hub? B/c I think Delta would say that it has a hub there. (Calling Tim Dunn….)
@SOBE ER DOC – everything you pointed out is true… where else can you find the concentration of the Barnes, PMA, Rodin Museum and PAFA within one mile? (And the Calder museum is coming to the Parkway as well.)
Just to be clear, Delta bought US’ slots at LGA but grew JFK almost entirely through organic growth esp. when JFK was not slot-controlled. The FAA pulled slot controls at LGA and JFK at times post 9/11 and I believe post Great Recession to increase competitiveness and DL grew that way.
Even before the US merger, AA asked the FAA to eliminate LGA slots to reduce delays while DL looked to grow. The difference between AA and DL in NYC is simply one of a vision of what each wanted to be.
And the value of NYC is the huge number of corporate travel accounts in addition to the market size. Given that the NYC market is highly competitive, AA could build a PHL presence which they dominate but won’t have access to the corporate accounts or have a network size large enough to attract lots of high value cardholders.
All of the cardholders in NYC can’t overcome the inability to operate a profitable airline network – which is why AA is moving to reduce its NYC network post NEA.
The unit costs (CASM) for the A321XLR will support point to point international flights but will not be viable for connecting traffic. It is far more economic to fly widebodies, esp. new generation widebodies like the A330NEO or B787 if a route depends on a significant amount of connections.
I wonder how they are going to compete with Delta and United. Both United and Delta are some of the largest airlines in the world and the largest in the United States of America.
I think this understates some of the upside of PHL over NYC for AA. Yes, a lot of people live in New York and AA doesn’t have a great product to offer them. That was true even with JetBlue — AA still paled to UA’s huge presence at EWR and DL’s hubs at LGA and JFK.
But PHL is an airport AA can dominate. Philly itself is a decent sized city but having good connection there suddenly makes AA a much better option for all the people living in the NE in places like Boston, Baltimore, DC, Richmond, western PA, etc. As someone who lives in DC, AA never had good connectivity to JFK and who wants to go through very risky NYC airspace to connect anyway? Now if AA can actually fly a bunch of good connecting flights from DC to PHL, I suddenly view AA as a pretty viable option to Europe. I guess CLT could also play that role but it’s a lot more out of the way for people in the NE, not to mention a horribly crowded and unpleasant airport. Say what you will about PHL but I’d take that anyway over CLT.
MR SOBER ER DOC nails it. Just praying South Philly doesn’t go the way of douchebag hipster Brooklyn…
@OCTinPHL I saw the AA QR codeshare for sale on my dates in December.
As for the sh*thole moniker for PHL, it’s outdated too. Recent and current renovations (once complete) will make for nice public spaces. It’s much calmer and the TSA experience is 10x easier in PHL than NYC airports. Prices at restaurants and shops are more down to earth too. 15 minute relatively inexpensive train ride to downtown or 30th Street Amtrak station. Pretty good lounge options too now that the Centurion lounge overcrowding has eased a bit. And the thing I like most about it is that every terminal is connected airside and you can easily walk between them. Compare that to the multiple airports experience of JFK.
Overall, aside from being close to home it’s a much more relaxing experience and I’d take it over EWR (where I fly out of much more than I wish) any day — or even JFK (albeit better lounge options and carrier choices at JFK). Remember that it’s not just about serving the city. The NE is a populous region and there are plenty of pax in South/Central/NJersey, Philly, Delaware, Baltimore, etc. that would fly out of PHL. I hope American goes all in with more international flights from PHL
I am not sure that I am grasping the premise of this article, and thus of course not sure I fully agree with it. There seems to be some insinuation here that the market and customer to be served is a NYC-only one who cares about convenience and minimizing connections. AA, from what I have seen, seems to be of the belief that there is a large swath of largely leisure customers across the country who do not fall into that category. They are one-off, price-sensitive, likely carrier-agnostic, and willing to do various things (rational or otherwise) to get the lowest fare. Data I have seen this summer regarding the demand for European travel in particular appears to validate that position.
It would seem to me that AA is simply using PHL as a lower-cost catchment area from which to collect and serve that customer population. This does not strike me as inherently illogical and is consistent with how US used the hub years ago. So I am not sure what I am missing, other than that apparently NYC customers are *very* important and the #1 strategic objective should be to serve them before all others.
@Larry – thanks. (I still think I’ll trek up to JFK to fly QSuites, unless AA PHL-DOH is significantly cheaper.)
Terminal A-West is very nice as far as international terminals go. SOOO much better than flying int’l out of CLT, which is a sh!thole. (RDU is much nicer than CLT.) Centurion is still too small, but even so the wait is rarely more than 10 minutes. Hopefully the Flagship Lounge will open and be on par with the FL in LAX, DFW, etc. Because the A-B Admiral’s Club is a disgrace. I only use the Terminal F AC in when flying out of there. Finally, I don’t own a car and rely on SEPTA, but I rarely take the train to PHL. Service every 30 minutes is not a true airport service. (And it is 60 minutes on weekends.) I will take the train to PHL if I have time…. But I almost always Uber home as I always seem to just miss that train and don’t feel like waiting 25 minutes when I can be home in 20 via Uber. (Another overlooked benefit of PHL is how close it is to Center City – as good as BOS is, nearly as good as DCA and SAN.)
As a former New Yorker now in DC, I’m happy to consider PHL and an extra connection – if they price their TATL J competitively. That remains to be seen.
Philadelphia’s airport is a terrible one. Further, New York originating itineraries (or terminating ones) aren’t going to fly through Philadelphia to get to/from Europe. That’s ridiculous. NY is the largest gateway to Europe for a reason and the hassle of connecting in PHL will not work for anyone but a few (very few) card loyalists.
Also, some fallacies in this article.
First, American only operated a second JFK-FCO flight this summer, and only from July to August. It has operated a nonstop for years (seasonally) and in 2019, began resuming the season much earlier and running the flight longer, to the end of October.
Second, Delta didn’t get big in NYC by swapping slots with USAirways, which it did, in 2009, trading slots at DCA for slots at LGA. Delta was already big in NY. It finally capitalized on assets it inherited at JFK from the 1991 purchase of Pan Am’s TATL and JFK operation, and figured out how to use them. It was already big at LGA. It got bigger with the slot swap and turned LGA into a 250+ a day operation.
Philadelphia is limited in its ability to be a meaningful TATL gateway for American. What’s left of the much diminished corporate wallet share isn’t as big in PHL as it once was, though the airport does have a considerable catchment area. The banks of flights were reduced at PHL and not returned to pre-pandemic levels. AA likes PHL because it has almost no competition to Europe from there. In fact, since AA can’t even make FRA/MUC work out of PHL and dropped those flights before COVID, ceding it to LH, it has zero competition in PHL. That’s what it likes the airport. Sadly, the yields and the potential are not there. They are in NYC.
Long term, the only solution for AA to fix its NY problem is to find a way to acquire B6, which itself, runs an awful and unreliable operation with delays being the norm, and isn’t an airline business travelers want to fly, but it has the assets and the slots and given the lunacy of trying to by NK at a huge premium, combined with its operational challenges, B6 is putting itself in play. It’s not profitable enough to be meaningful. It will eventually have to shed assets and you better believe AA will go shopping for them. It may take a few years, but Jet Blue DBA as American Airlines will happen, eventually.
Not gonna lie, PHL as an airport has been on the struggle bus for some time, but progress has been made:
1. AA up-gauging aircraft in the market has reduced airfield and air traffic congestion. Delays are not as horrific as they used to be.
2. A-West is a very functional and is, honestly, a decent terminal for international arrival and departure…especially if you are connecting. Would take it over the other NE airports.
3. Amenities have improved over the past decade. That said, there is NOTHING that can be done to improve B-C-D-E concourses without replacing them. They are crowded and far behind the investments made in the NYC airports.
Everyone hates on PHL as an airport but, honestly, I would take that over the sh@tshow that CLT has become and EWR will always be owing to the congestion in NYC.
“Everyone hates on PHL as an airport but, honestly, I would take that over the sh@tshow that CLT has become and EWR will always be owing to the congestion in NYC.”
I don’t fly through EWR enough to have an opinion, but CLT *is* the sh!tshow that all the Philly-haters say PHL is… and I’ve never bought into the “but the southern charm BS…” – CLT AA employees are much ruder than PHL’s, on average. Maybe I just know how to talk to PHL employees….
Twice now DOJ has helped delta strengthen or maintain their NYC position. Delta has plenty of “organic” growth on their own in NYCand should be applauded for it. Though one could seriously argue if their US LGA slot purchase years ago would be allowed today by DOJ since there was nothing organic about it and plenty of LCCs would’ve loved those LGA slots.
However, DOJ first forced LGa slot divesting by aa-us at merger even though the combined portfolio was still significantly smaller than delta. That was the first major gift to delta to entrench their position.
Now this… where DOJ effectively removed a true dual hub competitor in nyc to delta.
The double standard is impressive by DOJ.
But sure… delta wasn’t lobbying hard against the NEA… if you believe that, you’re naive, or just plain Dunn.
As a Philadelphia resident born and raise, I must say Philly will never be on New York level but we don’t need to be on there level. It’s sound like you had a bad experience or two in Philly to call the city Filthadelphia. The city has come a long away and every time I drive downtown I constantly see cranes in the sky with continues construction of new buildings.
You mention about less competition in the New York area for flights. All PHL has is basically AA so we don’t have any competition to begin with internationally outside of LCC for domestic and Mexico routes. I do agree AA New York strategy is a mess though
Hopefully this will at least spur the restart of construction on the still-missing flagship lounge. The fact that the former admirals club in A-West has been closed since 2018-2019 (?) is beyond laughable at this point. Not to mention it was the largest, nicest space for a lounge anywhere in PHL. Any intel on that?
Besides complaining, what exactly is it that you think AA should do now, given their options, to serve the NYC market?
What AA should be doing, which would help its position enormously, is advocating to rollback the post-9/11 rules requiring suitcases to be picked up at port-of-entry and go back to allowing airside I:D transfers. This would make PHL (and every other hub) far more palatable. But having to do the current CBP/baggage/customs/dropoff/checking/security process makes transiting too much of a PITA, especially if you’re doing a long-haul to PHL to then get on a short-hop to NYC
I agree with Jason – a lot of this Monday morning quarterbacking is besides the point. You say AA doesn’t have a viable strategy in New York. Well – why don’t you construct one?
Philadelphia is the fourth largest metro area in the country (yes, really; PHX and IAH are lying by “absorbing” burbs that PHL didn’t.)
So it’s not wise to write as if PHL is tiny like Austin or Reno. There are a *lot* of travelers here. Making Philly fliers drive all the way to JFK to get an int’l flight is ignorant. Travel agents and airlines have been making them do it for decades, and a whole bunch of us Philly residents have had enough and we won’t do it anymore. It takes longer just to get across Staten Island as it does for us to get from the Philly burbs to PHL.
You folks in NY have plenty of other flights to choose from out of JFK and EWR. Don’t have a hissy fit when AA decides to give a few more flights to PHL. And will it work? Yes, as a matter of fact, my travel friends and I are already considering going to CPH or NCE next year. Seriously. We go where we can get direct flights. No, we will not consider travel from JFK or IAD; we shouldn’t have to fight our way to Long Island or around the Beltway.
They have completely abandoned the west coast premium traveler. Who is going to sit in an Airbus 319 for 6 hours after a TATL in J.
They have the premium A321T going LAX – NYC but crap to Philadelphia.
@Beachfan – c’mon, AA flies A321s to SAN, LAX, SFO, SEA, PHX, LAS, and DFW; 737s to ORD. The A319 is relegated to places like IAH. Find one 6-hr flight from PHL that is on a A319. I don’t disagree that AA has given up on west coast premium travelers, or that the A321s out of PHL are crap. But 6 hours in A319 is hyperbolic.
I would much rather connect through Phila then Charlotte.
There are a number of factually inaccurate statements about AA, DL and US in the comments and article here – and consequently people are coming to the wrong conclusions.
DL had about 1/4 of the of the slots at LGA and US had nearly half before the DL/US slot swap – which was also before the AA/US merger – with AA a slightly lower percentage. US, led at that time by Doug Parker w/ Scott Kirby over network – said they could not use 1/4 of the slots – and were running turboprops on high frequencies within the NE. The LGA side of the slot swap was for 1/4 of the slots from US going to LGA – which put DL just under 1/2 of the slots – because DL intentionally did not want to go over 50%.
US had about 45% of the slots at LGA and DL had about 20% at the time of the slot deal; DL was willing to trade about 10% which put US at about 55% – close to what AA/US has now.
The DOJ required divestitures of both sides at DCA and LGA but they were fairly routine and small and helped B6, WN and other LCCs.
When AA merged w/ US, the DOJ said that AA/US could get no larger than US was after the slot deal so the equivalent of AA’s entire slot portfolio was divested – again to LCCs.
AA and DL now post mergers (US and NW) have about 35 and 45% of LGA slots. AA is not incapable of matching DL’s size at LGA in key markets.
AA was slightly larger than DL at JFK at the time DL closed its DFW hub and started to build JFK using widebodies that were flying domestic flights (the 764s were originally delivered as domesitc aircraft) and narrowbodies from DFW. DL’s growth at JFK was largely organic except for the DL-UA JFK-EWR slot deal which came after UA decided to leave JFK and EWR was still slot controlled. The DOJ blocked UA gaining any more slots at EWR but DL retained the JFK slots.
DL wasn’t gifted anything in NYC and the DOJ didn’t hand them anything. US didn’t see value at LGA and both US and UA tried to gain slots at DCA and EWR respectively which were essentially blocked by the DOJ because of the size of those two carriers before those slot swaps. The net impact is that DL got larger in the NE and NYC. Slot controls at EWR ended because UA was not using its slots adequately – the exact same charge the FAA leveled against AA at JFK and LGA – which led to the NEA – which was overturned because antitrust immunized joint ventures are not allowed between two US carriers (other than the VERY SHORT LIVED intra-Hawaii JV which Gary managed to find)
UA’s realization that EWR has been overhubbed and incapable of supporting the amount of flights they have scheduled recently has only further strengthened DL’s position in NYC as UA has been forced to shrink EWR but has been unable to get back into JFK.
DL saw the value in NYC when neither AA or US did, built a two airport hub operation at LGA and JFK of the size each airport could support, acquired slots where it could, and has complied w/ FAA usage requirements, which has allowed JFK and LGA to remain slot controlled while EWR no longer is.
AA’s current predicament in NYC is because they truly don’t have the size at JFK to build a hub the size that DL has at JFK or UA has at EWR. AA is without excuse for not being able to compete at LGA except for the domestic and international and transcon markets are all part of one large market and AA has been unable to compete in multiple parts of the market which DL and UA serve.
AA tried to bulk up in NYC via the NEA even though it knew that type of arrangement was legally not possible – and they lost that gamble.
We will find out what whether AA can truly be a global carrier w/o a strong global presence in NYC. 25 years ago, NYC was not a major hub but it now is for two airlines plus B6 and AA as a secondary player.
Tired old trite statements about Philadelphia. Seriously Gary…Filthadelphia? What’s next, you’re going to bring up the snowball pelting of the drunk as a skunk Santa 55 years ago as a way to characterize a city that has come a long way in the last decade. By the way, that Santa was so disreputable and drunk he almost deserved what he got, which by the way was started by a future mayor of Philadelphia. I was at JFK not that long ago and it’s just not a great airport. PHL has a lot of work to do, but it and the City have cleaned up a lot and PHL is greatly improved since you wrote that one-sided trashy article 5 years ago. PHL would be a lot better if AA would cooperate more with PHL management and be willing to step up, much like Delta has been doing at JFK. PHL would be a much better airport if AA didn’t control so many of its gates.
A lot here I agree with. NYC is a huge, rich metropolis which offers great opportunities that aren’t matched elsewhere. But … Both DL and (esp) UA have large operations, and it is the requisite minimal destination for any serious overseas carrier. Both diminish the TATL options for AA, with a smaller footprint. Why not shift resources to PHL, which is the 7th largest MSA in the US, and in which AA could operate without serious competition. Plus there’s real opportunity to filling narrowbody Airbus jets to European destinations. (Full disclosure: former NYC resident / current metro Phila resident)
I have been to some pretty terrible airports in the last year including st martin, Belize,, bahamas, and ponta delgado. Granted these airports are not in the United States. But the real issue is the airline. Would you rather spend 2 hours checking in at a new check in in Buenos Aires at aerolineas argentina or 5 minutes at United? If the first plane is delayed you often spend little time in the connecting airport. Besides a east is fine and the centurion lounge has great food. The real issue is american underutilizes it gates at PHL too and hence squats on them. So who owns the qr gste? If the airport was well managed it would be working to get turkish or Emirates. Lufthansa can fly eurowings discovery as it knows the product American offers.
As a 10 year EXP, I will never fly out of out Philadelphia. I simply do not like the travel connections, the lounges, and more. Even the AA crew do not like it. I have been told its all due to the USAirways past.
As an AA Flyer & Citicard member, I WOULD MUCH PREFER to connect thru Philly than any NYC airport, and Charlotte.
I live in the middle of the USA and try and avoid both of them them going to Europe.
My experience is all 3 NYC Airports & ORD are like flying from a 3rd world airport. Charlotte is much better, but, it’s got it’s share of problems too.
Let’s hear it for the City of Brotherly & Sisterly Love!
It sounds like a continuation of death by 1,000 cuts by AA. I have flown through Philadelphia only once and I was not impressed by the airport nor the Philly cheesesteak I had there.
Philly is a dump, and my family is terrified of going to NY given high crime since Giuliani left. At least EWR has an Amtrak stop; both PHL and JFK involve taking local trains with weird schedules and fares. Philadelphia International Airport ranked last in J.D. Power’s latest survey.
I don’t understand AA. I mean, given loyalty to OW, anyone would choose QR over AA, and will fly QR out of a halfway decent airport.
I feel sorry for flyers living in or near NJ, a dying state in a dying region.
I haven’t seen much about airspace constraints in here (article or comments). This summer has shown what a distaster JFK & EWR can be. Frequent and long GDPs which lead to a lot of delay minutes (which is about $70+ a minute in cost btw), many cancellations (take the UAL mess a few months ago) and tons of misconnects. PHL tends to fair a lot better on those bad weather days. Maybe operationally it’s a safer bet too, especially for connectivity. I’m not so sure PHL would get such good yields coming from Europe to the US though. NYC has appeal to tourists and business in Europe that PHL does not, and if people are connecting from Europe to other places in the US they may well choose ORD, CLT or DFW over PHL anyway
Bravo, fellow readers, I learned a lot from the comments (and Gary’s fine commentary). All that I would add is that I’m fine with connecting through any airport in a city run by Progressives, as long as I stay in the airport. All bets are off, however, if the flight is delayed and I’m stuck overnight. Over 30 years later I can still recall the nightmare of staying in a dangerous hotel near EWR. That’s always a very real possibility, so choose wisely.
@BigTee: So let me get this straight: Philly is a dump, NYC is terrifying and NJ and the whole Northeast is dying? What whitebread, spotless crime-free part of Middle Amerika do you come from?
Hey @bigtee, your rant is as good as your crime rate nonsense. The year Giuliani left office as NYC mayor, NYC enjoyed 162,908 instances of the seven major felony offenses. Last year, NYC had 126,589 instances of those same crimes (murder/manslaughter, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, grand larceny of a motor vehicle), a 22.3% drop compared to when Giuliani was mayor. In fact, in every year from the time the Giuliani left office the major crime numbers have been lower, through Bloomberg, de Blasio and Adams. As a tough crime fighter as mayor, Giuliani was a bust. Crime in NYC has risen during the last two years, but even with those increases, it’s still well below when your guy, America’s attorney felon was mayor.
@OctinPhil
I am guilty of hyperbole as charged.
However, while the A319 is close to the bottom , I find the A321 J experience poor, and hard for me even if a TATL isn’t preceding it.
Abandoning the west coast premium carriers- except if they want to go to NY. .
There is point I think is consistently missed. American is not American but US Airways whose hubs were and are Philadelphia and Charlotte. Hence, the rationale behind every American Airlines decisions since it was bought by US Airways has consistently been based on US Airways strategies. Frankly, if I didn’t have the high miles and permanent million miles status I would move on to Delta and United I guess I would have to work on those 2 airlines) building up status . I’m a former New Yorker with strong ties to NY so LGA and JFK works for me. JFK and Newark may be equidistant but it depends on where in NYC one lives. It is far better drive despite traffic to JFK than Newark. Unless a stop in Philly offers better airfares and international flights Philly does not work for New Yorkers. Bottom line American is US Airways with American’s brand. Even the planes are mostly US Airways’ fleet.
Still wondering why AA gave up nonstops from NY to MCO.
I remember you did a post ~10 years ago comparing the per-passenger operating cost for AA at each of its hubs, and PHL was substantially cheaper than JFK. We know AA management is penny wise pound foolish, so it all adds up in that case.
@Tom R you raise a good point, which is ex-Europe traffic flying into the region. You suggest that there isn’t a lot of ex-Europe business traffic that would be interested in PHL; that is actually not true at all. There is a tremendous amount of manufacturing and logistics companies concentrated all along the I-81 corridor and in SEPA that would have European professionals coming to engage (either as part of management, or for example German industrial equipment vendors). However the thought that they would elect to fly AA over any European carrier is sufficiently absurd that I’m not going to continue any further.