American ends the Austin focus experiment

Scratch another of the COVID-era experiments from American’s operations. The carrier’s not a hub, not a focus city, but definitely occasionally a connection point for passengers in Austin, Texas is no more.

Launched at the end of 2021, the growth in Austin aimed to capture more local traffic. Nearly 30 non-hub destinations were served, including multiple international markets.

One could argue the experiment ended months ago as American began chopping destinations from the Austin operation. With these latest cuts, however, the airline has removed more than 30 daily flights, and nearly every non-hub destination, from its Austin departures board.

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The company pitched its Austin growth a response to the increase in demand for point-to-point traffic. Passengers, still generally more cautious about travel owing to risks associated with the respiratory virus, would be willing to pay a premium for non-stop service. And Austin was a big enough market to support a decent chunk of destinations. At least that was the theory.

But it was not only point-to-point traffic being served. Austin, just 190 miles from the carrier’s massive hub at DFW, was also used to move some connecting traffic. The local demand was far more the focus, but connecting passengers helped fill some planes.

Ultimately, however, neither proved sufficient. American is moving the planes elsewhere.

The last flights to Raleigh-Durham, Boston, and Nashville will operate in November. The final flights to Orange County, CA will fly in January.

Not every non-hub route is disappearing, however. While the vast majority of the remaining operations will be to the carrier’s eight hubs, flights will also remain to Aspen (winter seasonal), Cancun, and Cabo.

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As American moves out, Delta Air Lines is backfilling some of the capacity. By April 2025 the carrier will see more than 50 peak daily departures, about 70% of American’s peak operations two years ago, and more than American will operate in the year ahead.

A dozen of those daily departures for Delta will be to newly served non-hub markets. New Orleans, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Nashville will all see Delta flights from Austin, as will a trio of smaller cities in Texas. Unlike American’s 2022 expansion, however, Delta does not appear to be routing much connecting traffic via Austin. That said, the airline does have some experience with running a hub in the region. DFW was also a hub for Delta until January 2005. Maybe Austin is an opportunity to eventually play that game again.