American Airlines Reduces International Flying by 6 Percent

American Airlines has reduced its international flying for April by 6 percent as its initial response to the conflict in the Middle East. Selected flights to Europe and Latin America will be canceled but no city will lose service altogether.

American has said it will not immediately cut any domestic flights, although domestic capacity for April was already planned to be down 7 percent from April 2002.

"It is clear that people are becoming more tentative about booking international travel at this point in time," said Henry Joyner, American’s senior vice president-Planning. "We have targeted some additional international flight reductions to complement our original plan which already called for reduced capacity across the system in April. We believe this approach is the prudent first step as we await further developments. Additional schedule adjustments will obviously depend on how customer demand reacts to this event."

The 6 percent reduction includes previous announcements that American is delaying launch of its new Los Angeles to Tokyo flight for two months and postponing an additional weekly flight on its Dallas/Fort Worth to Tokyo route.

American will also reduce selected frequencies on routes from Boston, Chicago and St. Louis to London; Dallas/Fort Worth to Paris; and Miami to Belize, Guatemala City and Panama City. Because of multiple flights in these markets, most of the routes will maintain daily nonstop service.

American said it does not know what – if any – employment impact these flight reductions may create.