American Airlines Lists 15 Cities that will Lose Service When Stimulus Money Expires

American Airlines said it will drop service to 15 smaller airports in October once stipulations from federal stimulus grants and loans end.

Fort Worth-based American plans to drop service to cities with low demand such as Del Rio in Texas, Greenville in South Carolina and Stillwater, Oklahoma due to low demand, destinations that have continued to receive flights during the COVID-19 pandemic because of promises tied to the $5.8 million in grants and loans from the federal government.

The cuts would start Oct. 7 and are in effect through Nov. 3.

American last week said that 30 cities could lose service in this fall if Congress doesn’t negotiate an extension of the CARES Act that includes more payroll support for the airline industry. The original plan passed in March included more than $50 billion for carriers, along with stipulations that airlines wouldn’t cut service to any cities and wouldn’t lay off employees.

But Congress left for recess at the end of last week without a deal for more stimulus and momentum is waning for another comprehensive package.

“The airline will continue to re-assess plans for these and other markets as an extension of the Payroll Support Program remains under deliberation,” the company said in a statement.

The second round of stimulus would give airlines payroll support through March 2021 and executives said they would support a deal that extends stipulations from the original CARES Act agreement, including rules about continuing airline service to all destinations.

American got $5.8 billion in grants and loans from the original CARES Act and later secured another $4.75 billion loan as part of the program.

But the airline says it has already burned through that money to the payrolls for more than 100,000 employees and lost $2.1 billion in the second quarter.

The 15 cities slated to lose service is half as many as the 30 unnamed cities American Airlines listed last week.

American is hoping to get payroll support to save about 20,000 employees that would need to be furloughed due to low demand in the fall. The company has already cut its administrative staff by 5,000 workers.

Below is a full list of cities that would lose service and their respective airport codes.

Del Rio, Texas, DRT

Dubuque, Iowa, DBQ

Florence, S.C., FLO

Greenville, N.C., PGV

Huntington, W.Va., HTS

Joplin, Mo., JLN

Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Mich., AZO

Lake Charles, La., LCH

New Haven, Conn., HVN

New Windsor, N.Y., SWF

Roswell, N.M., ROW