American Airlines will no longer fly five of its nonstop routes out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport beginning in October.
The affected routes include Austin’s year-round flights to Las Vegas; Orlando, Fla., and New Orleans. The airline also won’t fly its seasonal routes to Reno and Palm Springs. The cuts, according to American, come as the Fort Worth-based airline continues to evaluate its network.
“American will continue to offer customers access to our comprehensive global network of more than 350 destinations with one-stop connections,” said Andrea Koos, spokeswoman at American. “We’re proactively reaching out to impacted customers and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Austin-Bergstrom was one of the stars of the airline industry in recent years as carriers flooded the Texas capital with flights to take advantage of the city’s growing population and economic momentum with companies such as Tesla expanding their footprint. But the growth has slowed, in both population and business with companies such as Tesla even cutting workers.
The number of flights a day departing Austin exploded from 157 in early 2018 to 280 in September 2023, led by growth at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Fort Worth-based American grappling for dominance. But each airline has throttled that growth, and the number of flights per day dropped in 2024, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
However, American is compensating the reduction in routes and frequencies with some larger aircraft to keep up capacity, the company said.
Last week, during the air carrier’s second-quarter earnings call, American reported a cut to its profit forecast for the year. Robert Isom, CEO of American, emphasized two key areas affecting American’s results: the “softness” in the domestic marketplace and American’s sales and distribution strategy.
In November, American cut back on 21 routes at the Austin airport, including Cincinnati; El Paso; Jacksonville, Fla.; Oklahoma City; Tampa, Fla., and others.