American Airlines restructures route system; Lambert-St Louis International Airport to lose flights heavily

American Airlines is making a major restructuring of its route system, with some airports based in the United States gaining flights and many others losing services.

An American Airlines plane

The airline’s hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and Miami International Airport are expected to have a double-digit growth in flights – with 57 extra flights each day at O’Hare International Airport.

Also witnessing an increase in American Airlines’ flights are the airports in Los Angeles, New York, Puerto Rico and San Juan.

However, American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States, and a subsidiary of AMR Corporation, is reducing as many as 65 daily flights at Lambert-St Louis International Airport as a part of its plan to do away with “unprofitable flying.”

The carrier said it would reassign its employees at St Louis to other cities.

After the reductions, American Airlines will have 36 daily flights to 9 destinations from Lambert-St Louis International Airport.

American Airlines said it would reduce, by the summer 2010, flights from Lambert-St Louis International Airport to 20 cities in the United States. These cities are: Austin, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Madison, Milwaukee, Jacksonville (Florida), Nashville, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Newark (New Jersey), Oklahoma City, Norfolk (Virginia), Orlando, Richmond (Virginia), Wichita (Kansas),  Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina), San Antonio, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

A spokesman of American Airlines said the carrier was already in the process of doing away with services – by the end of 2009 – from Lambert-St Louis International Airport to 10 cities in the United States: Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Charlotte (North Carolina), Fayetteville (Arkansas), Dayton (Ohio), Las Vegas, Hartford (Connecticut), San Diego, Philadelphia, Tulsa (Oklahoma), and Springfield (Missouri).

The cuts being effected by American Airlines at Lambert-St Louis will result in the reduction of the non-stop flights by all carriers at the airport to 58 cities from 70 cities at present.

So, unless other airlines step in to fill the void that would be created by American Airlines’ reductions, passengers from Lambert-St Louis International Airport will not be able to get non-stop flights from Lambert to theses 12 US cities: Des Moines, Jacksonville (Florida), Austin, Indianapolis, Nashville, Madison, Norfolk (Virginia), Richmond (Virginia), Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina), Wichita (Kansas), San Francisco, and San Antonio.

Dick Hrabko, director of Lambert-St Louis International Airport, had held talks with Virasb Vahidi, American Airlines’ senior vice-president for planning, in August 2009. At their meeting, though Dick Hrabko presented statistics to demonstrate that American Airlines should maintain all its flights at St Louis Airport, Vahidi was not convinced, the airline’s spokesman said.

Hrabko told reporters that, in order to attract airlines to operate more flights from Lambert-St Louis International Airport, he is working on an “expanded incentive programme.” This prgoramme, he explained, offers airlines “thousands of dollars in breaks” through reductions in rents and land fees as well as increased marketing money.