American Airlines said Thursday that it will add more winter flights out of Chicago O’Hare to warm destinations like Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
The carrier is adding seven new destinations out of Chicago:
- Akron/Canton, Ohio
- San Jose, Costa Rica
- St. Croix
- Curacao
- St. Maarten
- Guatemala City
- Roanoke, Virginia
In addition to the new winter routes, American is increasing all existing frequencies for flights to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
The latest expansion comes as American also plans to increase capacity out of O’Hare by 25% this summer. American added routes to Madrid, Honolulu, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
American is doubling down on O’Hare — its third largest hub — as it faces increasing competition from United Airlines. A new lease agreement at O’Hare could give United six more gates, which would increase its share at the airport.
United’s growing presence at O’Hare came up during American’s first-quarter earnings call.
“If United is gaining share in Chicago, they’re gaining it from somebody other than us,” American chief strategy officer Steve Johnson said during the call.
Johnson said American was still working to rebuild its presence at O’Hare, which had diminished during the pandemic. Post-pandemic, American focused on building capacity at other hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte.
“What inning are we in the rebuild of Chicago? It’s right now maybe the fourth inning, I think, is about right, fourth or fifth inning, something like that,” Johnson said.
United, which is the largest airline out of O’Hare, also launched an ad campaign out of Chicago taking aim at American, offering customers a status match all the way up to Premier 1K on MileagePlus, according to The Points Guy.
“We understand that we’ll probably always be second place in Chicago, but that’s been a very effective means to serve our customers at a profitable position that we like a lot,” Johnson said.
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