Inside American Airlines’ Huge Austin Growth

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After years of pretty much no growth, American Airlines has expanded hugely at Austin this year. This November, it will have more than doubled in size, narrowing the gap considerably with Austin’s largest airline – Southwest. With 32 routes, we examine what’s happening.

Austin has risen seven places to become American’s 12th-largest airport. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Looking at this coming November, four months away, American has 611,000 round-trip seats available, data expert OAG shows. Of course, things could change, but this is by far its highest ever and more than twice the number it had in November 2019.

The number of flights has increased at an even faster rate, showing how it is particularly relying on the regional capacity provided by American Eagle and the Embraer 175. Recently, we looked at the Fokker 100, which was operated by American mainline.

American has cemented its lead over number-three, Delta, while narrowing the gap with Southwest, Austin’s largest carrier. Image: Simple Flying using OAG data.

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It follows years of minimal growth

American’s expansion comes after many years of little growth at the Texas capital. For example, in November 2011, American had just three routes from Austin: Dallas Fort Worth (naturally!); Chicago O’Hare; and Los Angeles.

New York JFK came in 2012, followed by Philadelphia, Phoenix, Charlotte, and Miami in 2015. Of course, some of these were the result of the merger with US Airways. Clearly, American’s routes were almost fully about hub flying – but how things have changed.

While American’s route map has grown considerably, with an obvious focus on leisure markets both inbound and outbound, over half of its capacity is still to its core six hubs. Image: OAG Mapper.

32 routes this November

In the week beginning November 8th, American will have 525 outbound flights from Austin to these 32 destinations. That’s 75 departures a day. These include an overnight service to San Juan, some 2,146 miles away. Other routes include six international, such as Liberia, Costa Rica, a market with 12,000 point-to-point passengers in 2019, booking data reveals.

  • Dallas Fort Worth: 91 weekly departures
  • Charlotte: 42
  • Miami: 35
  • Chicago O’Hare: 28
  • Los Angeles: 28
  • El Paso: 21
  • Philadelphia: 21
  • Phoenix: 21
  • Boston: 14
  • Cincinnati: 14
  • Indianapolis: 14
  • Kansas City: 14
  • Las Vegas: 14
  • Nashville: 14
  • New Orleans: 14
  • New York JFK: 14
  • Orlando: 14
  • Raleigh Durham: 14
  • St Louis: 14
  • Tampa: 14
  • Washington Dulles: 14
  • Jacksonville: 7
  • Oklahoma City: 7
  • Reno: 7
  • San Juan: 7
  • Tulsa: 7
  • Cancun: 4
  • Nassau: 4
  • Punta Cana: 4
  • Liberia: 3
  • Puerto Vallarta: 3
  • Los Cabos: 3
Many of American’s new routes had decent numbers of passengers connect through Dallas. St Louis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Oklahoma City were all in the top-10 via its Texas hub. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

What’s happening on a day in November?

On Tuesday, November 9th, American’s first departure is at 05:10 to Dallas. It is one of 13 departures to the airline’s largest hub that day, mainly by 181-seat A321, which has 16 seats in first. In 2019, American had an 85% seat load factor on this route, with 87% of passengers transiting through the hub, according to data from the Department of Transport’s T-100 obtained from Cirium.

From Austin to… Leaving at… Aircraft
Dallas 05:10 A321
Miami 05:38 A319
Dallas 06:00 A321
Kansas City 06:00 E175
Los Angeles 06:00 B737-800
Boston 06:15 B737-800
Dallas 06:50 A321
Charlotte 06:52 A321
Philadelphia 06:56 A319
Miami 07:00 B737 MAX 8
Phoenix 07:00 A319
Puerto Vallarta 07:30 B737-800
Washington Dulles 07:30 A319
Dallas 07:40 A321
St Louis 07:45 E175
New York JFK 07:51 B737-800
Nashville 08:00 E175
Orlando 08:00 B737-800
Charlotte 08:09 B737-800
Chicago 08:10 B737-800
Dallas 08:10 B737-800
Liberia 08:30 B737-800
Dallas 08:55 A321
Raleigh Durham 08:55 E175
Los Angeles 09:00 A319
Dallas 09:34 A321
Indianapolis 09:40 E175
Tampa 10:00 E175
Dallas 10:30 A321
El Paso 10:40 E175
Chicago 10:50 B737-800
Charlotte 11:17 B737-800
Orlando 11:30 B737-800
Miami 11:40 E175
Phoenix 11:45 B737-800
Kansas City 11:50 E175
Jacksonville 12:00 E175
Philadelphia 12:25 A319
Cincinnati 12:30 E175
Dallas 12:40 B737-800
Las Vegas 12:40 B737-800
Los Cabos 12:53 B737-800
Charlotte 12:59 A319
New Orleans 13:10 E175
Chicago 13:20 B737-800
Charlotte 13:40 B737-800
Dallas 14:40 A321
Philadelphia 15:01 A319
Washington Dulles 15:30 A319
El Paso 16:00 E175
Raleigh Durham 16:00 E175
Tulsa 16:00 E175
Phoenix 16:19 A320
Oklahoma City 16:20 E175
St Louis 16:25 E175
Boston 16:30 B737-800
Tampa 16:30 A319
Dallas 16:40 A321
Miami 16:45 E175
Charlotte 17:03 B737-800
Nashville 17:20 E175
Los Angeles 17:30 B737-800
New York JFK 18:21 B737-800
Dallas 18:30 B737-800
Indianapolis 18:30 E175
Chicago 18:40 B737-800
Las Vegas 19:20 B737-800
Los Angeles 19:41 B737-800
Miami 19:55 B737 MAX 8
Cincinnati 20:07 E175
Dallas 20:30 B737-800
Reno 20:30 E175
New Orleans 20:40 E175
El Paso 20:51 E175
San Juan 22:20 B737-800

While the B737-800 is the most commonly used aircraft that day, the 76-seat Embraer 175 is next. It has about one-third of departures, with only one hub (Miami) seeing the type. The aircraft is key for American’s new routes from Austin, including the 1,405-mile link with Reno, a previously unserved market with a strong 42,000 passengers in 2019.

Are you planning to fly to Austin this year? If so, from where? Let us know in the comments.



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