American to cancel daily 15 round trips, cite high fuel prices

[sabra]

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=3920939&ClientType=Printable

American to cancel daily 15 round trips, cite high fuel prices

FORT WORTH, Texas High fuel prices apparently are starting to constrict airline operations.

American Airlines, the nation's largest passenger air carrier, announced today it'll cancel 15 round trips temporarily in markets it serves from its two largest airport hubs, Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth.

American also said it would discontinue flights between Chicago O'Hare and Nagoya, Japan at the end of October because of fuel prices.

The cutbacks would remain in place from next Wednesday through October 29th. American said it would then evaluate the jet fuel market and decide whether to restore the flights.

[jburton]

1. I don't (totally) buy this excuse

I think they just have too many flights on routes served by competitors at cheaper rates.

From the article:
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One roundtrip flight a day are being canceled between D-F-W and Atlanta; Denver; El Paso; Newark, New Jersey; Washington Dulles; Houston (Bush) Intercontinental; Kansas City, Missouri; Chicago O'Hare; Toronto; Minneapolis-St. Paul; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Two round trips a day between D-F-W and Austin also are being canceled.

One round trip flight a day will be canceled from Chicago O'Hare to Houston (Bush) Intercontinental and Toronto.

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For instance, Continental is based in Houston, NWA in Minneapolis (also Sun Country does the DFW route for $112 round trip non-stop), Denver has Frontier. Toronto has Air Canada. Newark and Dulles are near other busy airports with tons of options.

Finally, Southwest has a gazillion flights from DFW to Austin, Houston, El Paso, and Tulsa, with no penalty for last-minute flights.