Summary
- American Airlines has never served so many Caribbean airports as it will this summer.
- It has benefited from Governor Habour’s return and Ocho Rios’s launch.
- More than two-thirds of the carrier’s Caribbean services are from Miami.
American Airlines is the leading operator between the US and the Caribbean. According to US Department of Transportation T-100 data, it carried 11 million passengers to/from the region last year and had 27% of the market.
American’s 41 Caribbean destinations
The following figure charts the number of Caribbean airports in American’s network in the past 20 years. Bermuda is omitted as it is not considered part of the region. Some readers may not like the Bahamas, which is not part of the Caribbean Sea, being included, but that’s up to them.
Source: OAG. Figure: James Pearson
It has benefited from the February 3, 2024, resumption of Governor’s Harbour (GHB on the subsequent map), American’s sixth airport in the Bahamas. The airline last served it in 2010 using American Eagle’s ATR 72s. It now runs up to three times weekly using the regional unit’s Embraer E175s, with service to end on August 4 before resuming in November.
234 Million Passengers: The Top US Airports For International Traffic In 2023
The top foreign airports are examined, too.
Ocho Rios (OCJ), Jamaica, is a new destination in American’s network. Flights began on February 24, and it was covered in my weekly notable airline routes newsletter. Ocho Rios’ airport is named Ian Fleming International, after the author of the James Bond novels. It runs twice-weekly using the E175 until the end of August before returning in October.
Image: GCMap
The two additions more than offset the loss of Samana in 2023. American Eagle served the Dominican Republic airport from San Juan between 2007 and 2008. It was served from Charlotte in 2021 and 2022 before switching to Miami, both on the E195. As is often the case, it was not the third time lucky.
American to the Caribbean this summer
Northern airlines, including American, switch to summer schedules on March 31 and winter schedules on October 27. As detailed below, American has Caribbean flights from nine mainland US airports in this period. It is based on examining the latest schedule supplied by the airline to OAG.
It is based on data as of March 26 and certainly may change.
|
Airport |
% of American’s Caribbean summer flights* |
Routes out of 41** |
Most-served destination by departures |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Miami |
66.7% |
41 |
Havana |
|
Charlotte |
18.4% |
21 |
Punta Cana |
|
Philadelphia |
4.8% |
10 |
Montego Bay |
|
Dallas Fort Worth |
4.4% |
Eight |
San Juan |
|
New York JFK |
2.9% |
Four |
Antigua |
|
Chicago O’Hare |
2.0% |
Three |
Montego Bay and Punta Cana are joint-first |
|
Washington Reagan |
0.7% |
One |
Nassau |
|
New York LaGuardia |
0.1% |
One |
Weekly to Aruba until August 31 |
|
Boston |
Negligible |
One |
Weekly to Providenciales until May 4 |
|
* March 31-October 26 |
** Excl. Bermuda |
Will you be flying to the Caribbean this summer? If so, let us know where you’re going in the comment section.
