American Airlines will resume long distance flights to Latin America.
American Airlines will resume much of its short-haul service to Latin America and begin longer flights in the coming weeks, taking advantage of its dominance in the region among its U.S. rivals.
See also: American plans 737 Max tours to convince passengers the plane is safe.
South America is the strongest part of American’s long-haul system in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic “even though, admittedly, the whole system is relatively weak,” the airline’s chief revenue officer, Vasu Raja, said Tuesday at the Aviation Festival Americas conference. The airline serves all major cities in the region “and most secondary and tertiary cities in terms of population,” he said.
See also: American Airlines loses $2.4 billion in the third quarter and retires 150 aircraft.
American is resuming some of its service in Latin America amid a deep slump in long-haul flights caused by the pandemic. While demand for travel within the United States is at about 40% of last year’s levels, international travel has declined even further. Travelers have been discouraged by fears of new outbreaks and changes in regulations for entering several countries, Bloomberg said
“We really like where we are in South America,” said Raja. “We believe this is an opportunity for us to get more out of that network sooner rather than later, given the innate competitive advantages we have.
Many short-haul flights to Latin America and the Caribbean have resumed, as well as longer routes from Miami to cities such as Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Santiago, an American spokeswoman said. The airline is beginning to expand such flights from Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Raja.
American will extend on Nov. 16 a program for coronavirus testing prior to passenger flights to Belize in Central America and Grenada and St. Lucia in the Caribbean, which the airline considers part of its Latin American network.
By Mary Schlangenstein
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