American Airlines is betting that your winter break plan will include a tropical destination.
The Fort Worth-based carrier on Wednesday announced its largest-ever schedule to the Caribbean and Latin America for the upcoming winter.
American is adding two new flights to Cancun and is ramping up service on 23 existing routes, including its newest destination, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.
Here are the details.
2 new routes to Cancun
American will launch only two flights to Cancun on December 9. The first will arrive from Cincinnati and the other will arrive from Nashville.
These flights will operate once a week on Saturday and they are unique in that they will operate on point-to-point service.
Most US flights operate to or from a center, which helps the airline increase the load by allocating connections onto these flights. However, the new offerings from Cincinnati and Nashville will primarily appeal to locals looking for fun in the sun this winter.
American will operate both flights using Boeing 737-800 aircraft with seats for 172 passengers.
Americans will go head to head with a combination of Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Mexican low-cost carrier viva aerobus on these two new routes. (US-operated flights from Nashville to Cancun from March 2016 to January 2019, according to Cirium’s schedule.)
Sign up for our daily newsletter
In recent months, American has been busy ramping up its presence at key hubs, away from some point-to-point flights (save for Austin). These recent additions are bucking that trend, but the once-a-week Saturday flights are hardly indicative of a pivot strategy.
23 service expansion flights
In addition to the new service to Cancun, American is augmenting its 23 existing flights with the expanded service.
You’ll see most of the changes listed below, but highlights include twice-daily flights to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
American just launched this route from Miami earlier this month and it seems to be doing well enough to add more flights. Tortola is a new destination for the American network (it last served the airport a decade ago) and for the Miami airport.
Nearly half of the enhanced routes are from Charlotte, where American recently unveiled plans to expand to 800 daily flights from its hub there. In total, American will provide 40% more seats from Charlotte to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America than in winter 2022.
Meanwhile, at the airline’s major hub in Dallas-Fort Worth, travelers can expect a major expansion centered on Mexico, with more than 50 daily departures to the country.
| From | Destination | Service change |
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte. | Belize City, Belize. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Charlotte. | City of Cancun, Mexico. | Increase to five daily flights. |
| Charlotte. | Curacao. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Charlotte. | Liberia, Costa Rica. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Charlotte. | Los Cabos, Mexico. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Charlotte. | Montego Bay, Jamaica. | Increase to four daily flights. |
| Charlotte. | Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Charlotte. | Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. | Increase to four daily flights. |
| Charlotte. | San Juan, Puerto Rico. | Increase to four daily flights. |
| Charlotte. | St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Acapulco, Mexico. | Expanded to three weekly flights. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Huatulco, Mexico. | Expanded to four weekly flights. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Monterrey, Mexico. | Increase to five daily flights. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. | Increase to four daily flights. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Los Cabos, Mexico. | Increase to five daily flights. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Zacatecas, Mexico. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Dallas-Fort Worth. | Zihuatanejo, Mexico. | Expanded for daily service. |
| Miami. | Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. | Increase to two daily flights. |
| Miami. | Santiago, Dominican Republic. | Increase to two daily flights. |
| Miami. | Tortola, British Virgin Islands. | Increase to two daily flights. |
bottom line
Thanks to hubs in Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, American has long had a strong foothold in the market for flights from the US to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Now, the airline is building on that with more than 2,250 weekly peak flights to 90 destinations in the region for the coming winter.
So if you’re thinking about a winter getaway, American might have a flight for you.
Related readings:
