New Routes of the Day – Americas (2 November 2021): American’s three new Austin routes

American Airlines has expanded its international network from Austin with the addition on 2 November of new routes to Guanacaste in Costa Rica and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. Both will be served 3-weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) using the airline’s 737-800s. Neither route currently faces direct competition. American already serves both of these international destinations from other US airports; Guanacaste from Chicago ORD, Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami, Puerto Vallarta from Chicago ORD, Dallas/Fort Worth (flown 3-daily!), Los Angeles and Phoenix. Guanacaste is more commonly known as Liberia International Airport as the airport is located just 11 kilometres southwest of the city of Liberia. However, in July of this year the airport was rebranded with the objective of improving the visibility and attractiveness of the Guanacaste region in international markets.

Now operating six international routes from Austin

These two new international routes mean that American is operating six international routes from Austin this winter. The other destinations are Cancun, Nassau, Punta Cana and San Jose del Cabo. All are flown either 3- or 4-weekly. With a total of 21-weekly departures on international routes from Austin, American is by far the leading provider of international flights at the Texas airport, well ahead of Aeromexico, Southwest and Spirit, each with 7-weekly international flights. Austin’s only long-haul route is with British Airways from London LHR, which resumed on 13 October.

New domestic route to Tulsa added

Not content with starting two new international routes from Austin on 2 November, American also began a new domestic route to Tulsa in Oklahoma. The 690-kilometre route will be served daily using E175s operated on American’s behalf by Envoy Air Inc. Although the airline faces no direct competition right now, Allegiant will be starting 2-weekly service on the route from 18 November.

Compared with November 2019, American has doubled the number of weekly domestic flights from Austin from 235 to 476. The number of domestic destinations served non-stop has more than trebled from eight to 26. Whereas in November 2019 Southwest was by far the busiest carrier in Austin with almost twice as many flights and seats as its nearest rival American, now the gap is much closer, with Southwest offering 531 weekly departures, just 55 more than American. Across all airlines, Austin’s flights this November are 24% higher than in 2019, with seat capacity up 17%.