A flight attendant asked about the future for flying from Philadelphia, the American Airlines hub that has suffered the least from the pandemic. Although the terminal has not seen much love, it is a place American Airlines has primarily focused on European departures. Domestic flights also rely heavily on the ability to bring passengers to Europe.
American had been operating flights from remote stands in Philadelphia the summer before the pandemic. They also built a Flagship lounge. According to schedule data from Cirium Diio Mi, the airline has only 850,000 departure seats and no plans to open it.
Brian Znotins is Americans Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning. He outlined the airline's vision for Philadelphia, which in many ways is the same as it was before the pandemic. American will continue to be their main connecting point to Europe, even though they will be able support more transatlantic flights from New York JFK.
They will be able to fly more destinations in Europe than ever before, and they'll be smaller and more efficient Airbus A321XLRs.
We have had to decrease our capacity to meet demand because there hasn't been much demand transatlantic. We will see a return to normal flow of flights over the winter. The summer of 2022 is where the bulls are. There have been many travelers who postponed their Rome trip two years consecutively. We expect 2022 to be the best transatlantic summer yet. Philadelphia will play an important role in ferrying those passengers across the Atlantic. The A321XLR plane that will be coming to Philadelphia in 2023 is what I am most excited about. This will enable us to fly more year round destinations from Philadelphia. If you are familiar with Philadelphia flying, we would do a lot more European flying during the summer. Then it would disappear and we'd fly that widebody somewhere in the country. We wouldn't make any money flying that widebody domestically. Add up the entire year. The three months that made money in Philadelphia during the summer and the nine months that lost money domestically, and you get the total. That's why we chose to consolidate our fleet. The A321XLR is cheaper to fly and has lower seat costs. You will not only be able add new flights to Philadelphia, which will be financially and sustainably profitable, but you'll also be able fly more of our existing markets on a year-round basis. You won't see the buildup capacity disappear in the summer, and you have all the variability in our plan. Philadelphia will continue to be our primary transatlantic gateway. We will continue to fly other transatlantic markets as well, but Philadelphia remains our most important connecting gateway.
It is interesting to hear the A321XLR vision of Philadelphia. Two and a quarter years ago, they were discussing long-haul 787 flights there. However, it seems that Philadelphia will see more A321XLRs.
