American cuts September flying capacity 7%
10:10 PM CDT on Friday, October 3, 2008

(as previously announced)
By TERRY MAXON tmaxon@dallasnews.com

American Airlines Inc. said Friday it reduced its flying capacity by 7 percent in September, cutting it to the smallest it has been in a September since 2001, when terrorist attacks grounded all airline flights in the U.S. for several days.

Excluding 2001, American hasn't operated with so little capacity in a September since 1998.
Spokesman Tim Smith said the airline has reduced its flying "to bring capacity more in line with actual demand, as well as our ability to price our services at fares that are closer to the costs of providing the service."

American and many other airlines began cutting capacity – measured in available seat miles – after Labor Day as they adjusted to the higher cost of jet fuel. Though energy prices have dropped recently, the carriers published their schedules months ago and have indicated they plan to go ahead with additional cutbacks later this year and in 2009.

"There will be another round [of cuts] in our November schedule to bring our capacity reductions to the fourth-quarter numbers we've announced," Mr. Smith said – about 12 percent on domestic flights and 8 percent systemwide.

American flew 12.87 billion available seat miles last month, down 7 percent from September 2007. It operated 12.25 billion in 2001, American's lowest capacity since it operated 12.76 billion available seat miles in 1998.

American also said its traffic fell 9.1 percent in September, joining most other major carriers in reporting a loss in passengers to go along with the drop in capacity. The biggest declines were posted by American; United Airlines Inc., down 9.2 percent; and Continental Airlines Inc., off 10.9 percent.

With nine of the 10 largest U.S. carriers releasing their September results so far, only Alaska Airlines Inc., with a 0.8 percent increase, and Delta Air Lines Inc., with 2 percent, have reported more traffic than a year earlier. The nine carriers as a group saw a 5.7 percent decline in traffic.
Among that nine, only Southwest Airlines Co. reported flying more capacity than in September 2007. The nine carriers collectively flew 5 percent less capacity than a year earlier.

American made sharp reductions early in September in its San Juan, Puerto Rico, hub, as well as selective cuts elsewhere in its system including an end to service out of Oakland, Calif.
The Puerto Rican cutbacks also hurt results of its commuter unit, American Eagle Airlines Inc., which reported Friday that its September traffic plummeted 17.2 percent on a 9.9 percent cut in capacity. The biggest drop came at American Eagle's San Juan-based Executive Airlines Inc., which saw its traffic decline 21.9 percent.