American Airlines Plans To Eliminate 27 Routes

American Airlines is trimming some of its service over the next several months.

According to the airline industry blog The Points Guy, American is set to cut 27 routes from its network, including a whopping 18 from New York at both John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.

Slashing two-thirds of your cuts from one destination might seem perilous, but American’s Northeast Alliance with JetBlue will cover slightly more than half of them. TPG reports that JetBlue already has, or plans to have, flights to 10 of the 18 NYC routes.

The partnership between American and JetBlue was announced in July 2020 and approved by the Transportation Department earlier this year. Ostensibly, the alliance was for both airlines to be able to take on the dominant carriers at the three major New York City airports, United and Delta.

Since then, airline watchdog Sen. Richard Blumenthal has expressed concerns that the Northeast Alliance will jack up fare prices.

The route cuts are set to begin on January 4, 2022, and roll out over the spring.

To be fair, however, not only is JetBlue picking up 10 of the routes being slashed, but many of the routes being eliminated were to either seasonal destinations or to so-called secondary airports.

These include Traverse City, Mich.; Pensacola, Fla.; Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; Nantucket, Mass.; Asheville, N.C.; and Bangor, Maine. All were to or from LaGuardia.

Other LGA routes cut were Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Philadelphia; and Savannah, Ga.