For the last decade, the Texas capital of Austin has been the city to be in.
Between 2013 and 2023, the population of what was once known as a regional city with a great music scene saw its population soar from just under 1.6 million to 2.3 million. During the pandemic especially, Austin’s population growth was among the highest in the country while airlines were also banking on extended tourist growth. Carriers as diverse as American Airlines (AAL) and Delta (DAL) in the U.S. to Aeromexico (GRPAF) , Virgin Atlantic (SPCE) and Lufthansa (DLAKF) globally all reworked their flight networks to run more flights there.
But as often happens with “trending” destinations, the bubble eventually started to crack. U.S. Census data shows that more residents left the city than came in for the first time in 20 years while several airlines have also been finding that the Austin routes they announced to great fanfare were not seeing the traffic needed to keep running them.
These are the cities from which American will stop running Austin flights
At the start of the year, Virgin ran its final flight between London’s Heathrow and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport while Spirit Airlines (SAVE) also cut a number of flights to the city around the same time period.
While it had already cut 21 routes to Austin from different parts of the U.S. in November 2023, American Airlines is now canceling five more — year-round routes from Las Vegas, New Orleans and Orlando and seasonal flights from Palm Springs and Reno.
American promises to ‘continue to offer customers access to global network’
An airline spokesperson confirmed to travel website The Points Guy that American was “reduc[ing] service from Austin starting in October” but “will continue to offer customers access to our comprehensive global network of more than 350 destinations with one-stop connections.”
The airline will continue to run routes to Austin from 15 cities including Boston, Charlotte, Cancun, New York and Dallas/Fort Worth but the widespread cuts mean that now the city is no more a focus for the airline than any other of the same size.
“Austin remains an important market for American as we continuously evaluate our network,” the airline said in a statement after another round of cuts in November 2023. “Together with our partners, American will continue to offer customers service to 15 of the top 20 markets from AUS.”
American Airlines also quietly cut flights between Raleigh-Durham and Cincinnati and Los Angeles and Tampa for similar reasons of needing to prioritize routes with higher traffic. Earlier this year, it announced plans to shift its strategic gears to focus on sun-seeking destinations — come the fall, it will start running new routes to destinations like Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, the Dominican Republic and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We are excited to continue growing our network to the region with more flights this winter to the Caribbean and Latin America than any other U.S. carrier ever,” Senior Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning Brian Zotnis said in a statement at the time.