American Airlines is planning to scale back capacity in 2009 even more than it had originally anticipated, joining Delta, which also announced plans to cut additional capacity this year.
Gerard Arpey, speaking at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York, said on June 11 that the carrier planned to reduce mainline seating capacity by 7.5% in 2009, up from a projected 6.5% decline. The carrier expects that in the second half of the year, its domestic capacity will decline by 7.5% and international capacity will decline by 5.5% compared with the second half of 2008; it would be down by 15.5% and 5.5%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2007.
Cuts would begin in late August, but neither American nor Arpey disclosed which routes would be affected.
"The cuts we implemented last year have been helpful," Arpey said in prepared remarks. "As a result, we did not make major changes to our summer schedule. But looking forward, we think an adjustment to our fall schedule is warranted."
Delta made a similar announcement at the conference and in a letter to employees, saying that its goal was to achieve a 10% system capacity reduction for 2009 compared with 2008, up from the previous target of about an 8% reduction. The move involves a total reduction of international capacity of about 15%, up from 10%.
According to a slide presentation from Continental, the carrier is estimating mainline cutbacks of about 5% to 6% in 2009. In a question-and-answer session, it was revealed that the airline was waiting until early July to make decisions about capacity changes; CEO Larry Kellner said Continental was aiming to get more data about business travel trends through June. "We have and will continue to size the business to the demand," he said.