American to stop Love Field service to two cities

Jul. 17--American Airlines Inc. is ending service to two of the four cities its affiliates serve out of Dallas Love Field and is beefing up service to the other two cities, the carrier said Monday.

On Sept. 5, American will stop offering flights from Love Field to St. Louis and San Antonio. On the same day, it will double its service to Kansas City, Mo., and Austin from four flights a day to eight.

"We've been tweaking our service there all along," American spokesman Tim Wagner said. "This is maybe the third or fourth schedule change we've made out there."

American has held three Love Field gates since it briefly offered Dallas service to Los Angeles, New York and Chicago in 2000-01. After Congress added Missouri to the states that could be served nonstop from Love Field, American launched service to Kansas City and St. Louis in March 2006, following Southwest Airlines Co.'s lead.

In April, American quit flying its jets out of Love Field and now relies entirely on its regional affiliates, American Eagle Airlines Inc. and Trans States Airlines Inc.

Mr. Wagner said American decided to focus on two cities and boost the frequency of flights to make the routes more useful to frequent travelers.

"Our customers value our service to Austin and Kansas City the most out of the cities we're serving," he said. "In order to maintain and grow that value to them, providing a broader schedule to those cities seemed to be the best way to serve those business travelers."

The revised schedule will leave 16 departures a day from Love Field, with the same number of seats.

Southwest, the only carrier that competes directly against American to those four cities, offers six daily nonstop flights from Dallas to Kansas City, 13 to Austin, eight to St. Louis and 15 to San Antonio.

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