All Things Travel: American Eagle Will Shut Down Logan Operations
BOSTON (CBS) - American Airlines regional carrier, American Eagle, will shut down its Logan Airport operations on November 17. Some 30 jobs are expected to be lost and service to Toronto and New York's LaGuardia Airport will cease.
AA is trying to sell its Eagle subsidiary. Under pilot contracts, a certain level of service must be maintained to continue service. Boston does not meet that commitment.
The loss of American Eagle is part of a general pullback in Boston as American concentrates more of its efforts in the Northeast in the New York area. American is the only national carrier to have lost money in all three quarters of this year.
It has faced stiff competition at Logan from JetBlue on service to New York and Washington and now Chicago. Porter Air has just announced its sixth daily flight from Boston to Toronto.
American has had trouble in other areas. Its One World Alliance with British Airways and Iberia Airlines has been slow to gain ground. Once a major airline serving San Francisco and San Diego at Logan, it has shut down these routes in Boston. Last year American was the airline partner of the New England Patriots. That marketing relationship has also ended.
In the last four years, American's share of Boston passenger traffic has dipped from 15 percent to 11 percent, dropping them to fifth position behind Continental now owned by United Airlines, which has 12 percent of the business.
With new and nearly completed mergers, JetBlue ranks number one with passengers with 23 percent of the overall Boston numbers for the first nine months of this year. Delta follows at 15 percent and US Airways at 13 percent. When completed, the Air Tran Southwest merger will have about 10 percent of the passenger load.
Air Tran is moving its ticketing and gate operations to Terminal E with Southwest on November 2.
American has maintained an overnight maintenance hanger at Logan for over 25 years. Its fate is unknown as Massport begins a major realignment and upgrade of its air-side hangers.
All Things Travel is reported by Bob Weiss on WBZ News Radio.
