by American Airlines is strengthening regional connectivity at two major northeast airports.
The Fort Worth-based carrier filed plans over the weekend to add service from LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Des Moines International Airport (DSM) in Iowa and Ronald National Airport. Washington Reagan (DCA) at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) in Louisiana. , as first seen in Cirium’s schedules and later confirmed by the carrier.
Both flights will begin June 1 and will operate daily year-round using a 76-seat Embraer E175.
American Eagle’s regional subsidiary Republic Airways will operate the LGA route, while wholly owned subsidiary Envoy Air will operate the DCA flight.
Perhaps most interestingly, the new Baton Rouge flight has been in the works for years. Local officials worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to secure $1 million in funding from the Small Community Air Service Development Program to help launch the route.
This subsidy, first announced in 2021, can be used to incentivize airlines to launch new routes; incentives typically include revenue guarantees, waived landing fees, marketing budget and more.
“Over the past two years, we have secured record investment in Baton Rouge Airport to help provide better air service from the region. Based on passenger data, Washington, D.C. and Chicago are the two most frequent destinations from our airport. This investment will help establish a direct flight between Baton Rouge and Washington D.C.. God knows Washington needs our help at all times,” U.S. Representative Garret Graves said during the the announcement of the grant.
While American may enjoy some incentives for the new DCA flight to Baton Rouge, it must use up a valuable pair of slots in DCA for the new route to work.
To manage capacity, the FAA classifies DCA as a Tier 3 airport, meaning takeoff and landing clearances are administered through slots. There is a fixed limit of 48 operations per hour at DCA by FAA regulations between 6 a.m. and 11:59 p.m.
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Each new flight requires a pair of slots, and American has not cut any routes to or from DCA as part of this week’s scheduled loadout. It remains to be seen whether American will have to make changes elsewhere in its DCA schedule to accommodate the new Baton Rouge flight.
The new LaGuardia service follows a surge in domestic connectivity the airline announced late last year as part of its Northeast Alliance tie-up with JetBlue Airways.
American is preparing to add the following six destinations to its LaGuardia network on May 5:
- Birmingham, Alabama — once a day.
- Buffalo, New York — three times a day.
- Columbia, SC — once a day.
- Grand Rapids, Michigan — once a day.
- Greenville, SC — twice a day.
- Knoxville, Tennessee – once a day.
JetBlue also announced four new routes from LaGuardia at the same time as American, and recently put these new flights on sale.
In a statement confirming the new LGA route, a spokesperson shared:
American Airlines is excited to fly from Des Moines International Airport to New York’s LaGuardia Airport this summer. This new daily flight brings our service from DSM to six destinations this summer. We’re excited to offer customers more ways to experience all that New York has to offer and to provide local residents with additional access to American’s global network.
Like DCA, LaGuardia is a slot-controlled airport. American made no major cuts to its LaGuardia network in this latest schedule update, so it was not immediately clear which American slots will be used for the Des Moines flight.
To learn more about American’s network, visit:
