American Airlines restores some popular overseas flights from Charlotte, but drops others
American Airlines announced wide-ranging changes to its international schedule for the summer Thursday, including changes at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The airline does not plan to resume flights from CLT to Barcelona or to Paris during next summer, according to American. And flights from Charlotte to Honolulu will not operate after Jan. 3, due to wide-body aircraft shortages.
But American, the dominant carrier at the Charlotte airport, will operate up to seven daily flights to six trans-Atlantic destinations from CLT.
Those destinations are:
▪ Dublin, with flights daily from May 5 through Oct. 28
▪ Rome, with flights daily from May 5 through Oct. 28
▪ Frankfurt, Germany, with flights daily from March 27 through Oct. 29
▪ London (Heathrow Airport), already operating once daily. That route will operate twice daily from March 27 to Oct. 29
▪ Madrid, with flights daily from March 27 through Oct. 5
▪ Munich, with flights daily from March 27 through Oct. 29.
In the last year, American added 37 new international flights to its schedule.
Fewer big planes available
Some changes to the summer 2022 international schedule come due to shortages in Boeing 787 planes. American currently has 46 Boeing 787s.
The airline expected to receive an additional 14 from Boeing this year and in 2022, but has only received one.
That’s why American will no longer operate its flight to Honolulu from the Charlotte airport. That flight had operated on a wide-body aircraft. Wide-body aircraft had been temporarily used on some domestic routes during the coronavirus pandemic as many international routes were put on hold.
Next summer, American plans to fly 80% of its wide-body long-haul international capacity compared to 2019. That’s up from 37% last summer and 12% in summer 2020.
Passenger traffic at Charlotte airport
The Charlotte airport saw a steep drop in passenger traffic early last year as the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S.
The airport has seen near pre-pandemic passenger levels in recent months, but the air travel industry is not yet on steady ground.
More than 2 million people boarded planes at CLT in October, the most recent month of data available.
That’s a big improvement from that month last year, when almost 1.4 million people boarded planes. Still, this October’s passenger count trails that month in 2019, before the pandemic hit North Carolina, when 2.2 million people boarded planes at CLT.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 1:20 PM.
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