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.