American Airlines chops 83,000 flights from its October schedule

American Airlines has cut 83,000 domestic flights from its October schedule during the last two weeks even as it holds onto hope that another round of federal stimulus grants could save jobs and service to some cities.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines has cut its global schedule by 55% from a year ago for the October month, the company confirmed, including a 48% decrease in domestic flying as the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of letting up and passengers show little eagerness to return to the skies.

It leaves American with about 99,000 flights for October, slightly more than it has planned for a slimmed down September schedule. The carrier continues to shrink its schedules the closer it gets to the actual month of flying, an indication of how tricky it is to forecast demand during a global health pandemic, said Jeff Pelletier, managing director of Dallas-based Airline Data Inc.

More cuts could be coming, Pelletier said. American still has hundreds of flights on the schedule for 15 cities where it wants to halt service in early October.

"While there have been numerous press releases on the removal of flights to the 15 stations throughout their network in October, what AA has actually done is they haven't yet pulled the schedule," Pelletier said. "The schedules are still intact, just at reduced frequencies, in the hopes that Congress may come back with some money."

American has also recently cut 9,000 flights from its November plans, too, but will likely make more reductions as the usually busy holiday month gets closer, he said.

The barebones schedule shows just how conservative airlines are being as fall approaches after planning an aggressive number of flights in July and August before a summer surge in COVID-19 cases lowered expectations.

American recently announced it was furloughing or laying off 19,000 workers as fall begins, workers that aren’t needed because of the reduced number of flights and passengers. United Airlines on Wednesday said it was furloughing and letting go of 16,370 workers.

For American and other airlines, the biggest cuts are in international flying. American has cut its October international schedule by 68% compared to last year, particularly to Eastern Hemisphere locations.

The constantly changing schedule does cause hiccups for employees at American, who are becoming used to the disruption. On Wednesday, American told pilots it was pushing back the window by one week to bid on October schedules. The closing window is now Sept. 17, just two weeks before the new month. That could give the company a few more days to see if Congress passes a stimulus package before setting pilot schedules.

Allied Pilots Association spokesman Dennis Tajer said there is also an unusually high number of pilots working stand-by in recent months. But overall, he said the company is doing a good job handling schedules considering the state of the industry.

"It's much better than it was back in April and May," he said.

American isn't the only airline cutting schedules. Southwest has reduced its October schedule by 35,000 flights during the last few weeks, a number that continues to decrease as the industry's recovery remains dim. Delta has reduced its schedule, too.

On Tuesday, only 516,000 passengers went through TSA security checkpoints at U.S. airports. That's the lowest passenger count since mid-July. Numbers are down partly because summer travel is mostly over as public schools and colleges begin instruction, but also because few business travelers are getting on planes now to go to meetings and sales trips.

Even American Airlines' fortress hub at DFW International Airport is suffering. American's departures at DFW are down 24% year over year, Pelletier said. As a share of American's flight schedule, it's actually increased flights to DFW and its other major hub in Charlotte, N.C. But the shrinking pie has meant smaller pieces for everyone.

American has cut traffic from DFW the most to its other major hubs, particularly in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

In fact, American has cut its schedule in D.C. by 80% compared to a year ago. In Texas, American’s service to Austin has also been cut deeply, down about 41% year-over-year.