Summary

  • American operates about one in four US flights.
  • All the carrier’s 10 busiest routes are from its Dallas Fort Worth and Charlotte hubs.
  • Dallas Fort Worth-Austin ranks first, with up to 16 daily departures.

American remains the world’s largest airline by many measures, including flights. It is so dominant that it will operate nearly one in four (24%) of the USA’s domestic and international services between August 2024 and March 2025, based on examining OAG data. The carrier’s activity is over twice that of JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, and Hawaiian combined.

American’s top 10 routes

The following table shows them. Naturally, all of them are from Dallas Fort Worth and Charlotte, the oneworld member’s two busiest hubs. As you might expect, many of the airport pairs are hub-to-hub services.

N837NN American Airlines (Oneworld Livery) Boeing 737-823 (1)

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Influenced by American’s activity level and number of routes, its 10 busiest markets account for 3.7% of its total services. About one in every 25 services involves them. They have a smaller share than United (4.7%) and Delta (4.8%).

The information shown below reflects the situation as of July 30 and certainly may change, especially later in the year and into 2025. Like other carriers, American will fine-tune its schedule closer to the time.

Route

Flights: August 2024-March 2025 each way*

Average* daily flights (maximum daily); each way**

% local***

Dallas Fort Worth-Austin

3,353

14 (16)

11%

Dallas Fort Worth-Los Angeles

3,210

13 (15)

34%

Dallas Fort Worth-Phoenix

2,908

12 (13)

36%

Dallas Fort Worth-San Antonio

2,897

12 (14)

15%

Dallas Fort Worth-Las Vegas

2,795

12 (14)

39%

Charlotte-Orlando

2,770

11 (13)

26%

Dallas Fort Worth-Miami

2,754

11 (12)

25%

Dallas Fort Worth-Chicago O’Hare

2,723

11 (13)

44%

Charlotte-Miami

2,527

10 (13)

21%

Charlotte-Raleigh Durham

2,500

10 (11)

1%

* As of July 30

* Flights/243 days ** As of July 30

*** Based on Q1 2024 data from US DOT O&D

The number one airport pair

As you can see, Dallas Fort Worth-Austin is the most-served market. Between August 2024 and March 2025, the ubiquitous Boeing 737-800 is the top equipment, followed by the A319, E175 (shown below), A320, A321, CRJ700, and A321neo. It has the greatest proportion of regional jets compared to other top 10 markets, although only 13% of the airport pair’s flights are on them.

AA E175

Given the short distance, the proportion of passengers flying locally is inevitably tiny (11%). Still, it’s equivalent to 336 passengers daily (both ways combined). Nearly everyone (89%) transits to another flight in Dallas. Given American’s additional cuts to its standalone Austin routes, that may increase further.

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Where Austin passengers go

According to US DOT T-100 data for Q1 2024 (January-March), the most recent data I have access to, American carried 278,118 roundtrip passengers between Dallas and Austin.

On average, 3,056 passengers flew between the two airports daily (both ways combined). It filled 82% of seats, one percentage point lower than the carrier’s Dallas average.

American Airlines Airbus A321-23 (N115NN) departing

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Some 2,720 passengers daily transited to another flight in Dallas. Booking data indicates that Austin-Fayetteville (Arkansas) was the most popular airport-level origin and destination. The others in the top 10 were Austin-Memphis, Tucson, Nashville, Jacksonville, El Paso, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Denver.

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