American moves trans-Pacific hub to Dallas/Fort Worth

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) is moving much of its Asian traffic from Los Angeles Int’l to its home base at Dallas/Fort Worth in a move that will allow it to capitalise on its strong connectivity there. American is making the move after decades of considering LAX its trans-Pacific hub for destinations such as Hong Kong Int’l, Beijing Capital, Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo Narita, Shanghai Pudong, Seoul Incheon, and Auckland Int’l. According to ch-aviation schedules data, the only Asian service American plans to retain from Los Angeles in 2021 is its twice-daily service to Tokyo Haneda. For now, it also plans to operate daily services from the city to both Auckland and Sydney Kingsford Smith. The airline conceded that, geographically, Dallas’ location was not ideal for serving Asia, but said it did open up new opportunities, reported Dallas Morning News. “Dallas certainly doesn’t have the best geography for an Asian hub, but it does have some advantages in connecting people in the Southeast (US) to Asia,” said Brian Znotins, American’s Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning. “In a lot of ways, this is more about reducing LA than boosting DFW. Every Asian carrier feels the need to serve LA, and that creates overcapacity. Even going into the pandemic, we were losing money on those LA flights,” he said. The move is in line with American’s strategy to build its main hub. Last year, it fulfilled a plan to put 900 flights a day out of DFW, connecting to nearly any other location it serves in the US. About 26% of all of American’s traffic goes through the airport, almost twice as much as through its next biggest hub in Charlotte Int’l. DFW was an attractive launching point for Asia because it meant a single stop for most of American’s US travellers, agreed Nico Mirman, a Dallas-based aviation consultant with Ailevon Pacific. DFW was also a convenient connecting point for travellers from Latin America, he said. “What American is probably thinking is to capitalise on the huge amount of connectivity that they get here,” he said. “That’s something LA cannot offer for them.”