It’s been over two years since American Airlines merged with US Airways, and one question we got was the future of their Phoenix hub. Even though we haven’t seen drastic expansion since the airlines merged, it’s still maintained a decent presence. In fact, since the merger, American has added 16 new routes from Phoenix, so in a way they are continuing to focus on this hub.
When it comes to international service from Phoenix, American is currently the largest international carrier in PHX, with service to Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica, and to London with their joint venture partner, British Airways.
Another question we wondered was what about wide bodies in Phoenix. I’m pleased to see that this month, they’ve upgauged one of their PHX–Honolulu (HNL) frequency to the Airbus A330 through the spring as the airline continues to leverage Phoenix in their combined network.
Will we ever see transatlantic flights on American Airlines metal? Only time will tell if they’ll launch transatlantic service from Phoenix Sky Harbor.
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Wouldn’t be surprised to see PHX grow, especially with crowding at LAX, and shrinking West Coast coverage with the distancing AS partnership.
AA seems to be shifting more transatlantics to PHL and CLT, especially since BA covers most every major city, and CX+JL continue to fill in AA’s lapse in East Asia.
I’m interested to see if AS will find a way to squeeze more capacity out of PHX, specifically flights to LAX or to Virgin locations. If so, that would make their presence much more compelling, and maybe provide more competition for AA.
vet&banker AA is keeping the hub and you want more competition on the PHX-LAX route??? How many airlines fly PHX-LAX, American, Southwest, Delta and United. Alaska has Zero connections on the PHX side and very, very little on the LAX side and you Alaska to lose money flying PHX-LAX so that AA could get “More competition”?
Actually, AA has cut more at PHX since the merger than adding more flights. Yes, they now serve more destinations from PHX but the hub is a little smaller. They cut more than 1/3 of the pilots based in PHX last year.
PHX has been right sized in the name of “network optimization” and I think that is to stay in the next few years – there won’t be any significant expansion or growth other than a new route here and there (most likely at the expense of frequencies on another route).
Perhaps 5+ years from now the tide might shift and there will be meaningful growth. Although I think AA/JL could make a Tokyo flight work with the 788. We will see.
I took recently a 330 from there to CLT. I also wonder what AA’s plans are for PHX but wonder also about the factor of the large airport at Mesa which is much more convenient to the growing east valley… and then there’s the heat. Phoenix is HOT in summer. Many people fly one-way out of there in early June and don’t return until October or so. Car rental and hotels are cheap in July and August if you dare go there.
and if Southwest attacks Phoenix, AA will fold.
Southwest already has a huge hub at PHX with service to most SWA cities nonstop from PHX. Hard to see what sort of “attack” they might be able to launch on Sky Harbor.