American Airlines joins Summer 2021 leisure wave

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has followed its rivals in announcing a panoply of new domestic leisure routes to cater to the pent-up travel demand expected later this summer. All of the routes will launch on June 5, 2021, and will be operated weekly except for services to Bangor and from Dallas to Burlington, which are due to launch later in June or in early July. The Nashville-Raleigh/Durham route will operate 12x weekly. Services will be operated with various aircraft, ranging from American Airlines’ own A319-100s to E170s and E175s operated by Envoy Air and Republic Airways. The network expansion will also include a single international route – from Austin Bergstrom Int’l to Nassau Int’l in the Bahamas – also operated weekly starting on June 5, 2021. “Throughout the pandemic, our trademark has been to build a schedule based on what customers tell us they want and need. And today, they are telling us they’re eager to get back to travel. With our summer schedule, we can offer customers the best network and continue welcoming them safely back to the skies,” Vice-President (Network Planning) Brian Znotins said. The airline said that its 2021 summer schedule would be almost on par with pre-pandemic levels, exceeding 90% of capacity offered in summer 2019. American Airlines’ international capacity will be down by around 20% compared to 2019.