Why is American Airlines Still Running a 29-mile Flight? The CARES Act Requires It
American Airlines has added a 29-mile flight to its schedule between airports that serve the ski communities of Vail and Aspen, Colorado — a route created to fulfill the requirements of the CARES Act.
The 29-mile “tag flight” is the shortest flight Fort Worth-based American Airlines has run since the 1990s and, until now, an increasing rarity as air travel created full flights between hubs such as DFW and niche destinations, including Vail and Aspen.
They are called “tag flights” because airlines can service three or four destinations a day on a circular path instead of the normal hub-to-destination routes. The flight takes off from DFW International Airport four days a week, making connections to Eagle County Regional Airport in Colorado, Aspen/Pitkin County Airport and then Montrose Regional Airport before heading back to DFW.
American will only be operating the flight until the beginning of June, when it plans to fly nonstop to all three airports from DFW.
“We’re currently flying this DFW-EGE-ASE-MTJ-DFW route due to the CARES act,” said American Airlines spokesman Nichelle Barrett.
Travel demand, especially to leisure destinations, has decreased to almost zero with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines are required to maintain service to every destination they did before the pandemic in order to take part in $50 billion in stimulus loans and grants as part of the CARES Act.
That allows American to hit three airports that serve Colorado’s premier ski destinations of Vail, Aspen and Telluride with one plane in one day.
It also makes for some short flights.
The Vail to Aspen flight is just 29 miles. Aspen to Telluride is about 76 miles. American schedules 35 minutes for the Vail to Aspen route and 40 minutes for the Aspen to Telluride leg.
Skywest, the regional partner operating the flight, has done some of those trips in about 23 minutes in recent weeks, according to FlightAware.
The flight also doesn’t get very high. A trip on Friday between the Vail and Aspen airports only gained about 8,600 feet of altitude from its takeoff point before starting to descend.
It all takes place on one of American’s smallest planes, a Canadair CJR-700, which tops out at 76 seats.
Short flights are becoming more common during the COVID-19 pandemic as airlines try to fulfill their legal obligations because of the CARES Act and adjust to the fact that very few people are flying to some niche destinations that were very popular during normal summer travel seasons.
Chicago-based United Airlines operates a 30-mile trip from Savannah, Ga., to Hilton Head, S.C. United also has a 43-mile flight from Decatur, Ill., to Springfield, Ill.
It’s not the shortest flight that American has ever operated. It had a 29-mile flight from Oakland to San Jose when it started operating flights to Tokyo-Narita Airport in the 1990s. Going way back to the 1930s, American Airlines had a 16-mile flight from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Battle Creek.
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