When Hurricane Harvey swept through Houston earlier this month, Southwest and United Airlines took the brunt of the load as each of their respective hubs in the region shut down for several days. Now, as Hurricane Irma takes aim at Florida, it’s American’s turn to see its operations disrupted.
On Sept. 8, American operated its last flight out of Miami International Airport. By Saturday, the airline confirmed that it had no operational aircraft remaining on the ground in Miami. Late on Sunday, the airline announced that it had curbed service and offered waivers to more than 50 airports in the region.
While other carriers such as JetBlue, Delta, and Spirit all operate numerous flights out of the area, Florida is a critical asset for American Airlines. Miami International, which serves over 30 million passengers each year, is a major hub for the carrier, which operates hundreds of flights out of the airport each day. MIA is also a critical connection point for American passengers to the Caribbean, Central, and South America while dozens of regional gulf airports feed into it.
As of Sunday evening, Miami International planned to remain closed until at least Monday morning.
Past the operational challenges, American Airlines can now expect a significant impact to its revenue as planes stay grounded and passengers cancel flights. In an investor presentation last week, United Airlines admitted that it was facing a $400M shortfall in the next quarter, partially due to cancellations around Hurricane Harvey. Though Miami International may not be closed for as long as Houston was, the surrounding airports that American serves may significantly widen those losses.
In the meantime, American appears to be supporting passengers attempting to escape the hurricane’s path. In Sunday’s travel alert, American said that it had capped fares at $99 each way “on direct, single leg flights from all cities covered under the travel alert in Florida, as well as Charleston, S.C, Hilton Head, S.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Savannah, GA.” That move comes after legacy carriers took heat for gouging passengers fleeing from hurricane affected zones earlier in the week.
The full spectrum of airports affected by American’s disruptions is available on American’s Travel alerts landing page.
