American Makes Renewed Commitment To JFK

American Airlines today opened the first part of a $1.1 billion new terminal at JFK Airport in New York City. The terminal will first house domestic operations starting later this month, but will quickly move to international departures to Tokyo, Brussels, Aruba, and Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic by year's end. International arrivals should start by 2007 once a new customs facility is built.

To show how committed American is to JFK, the airline also announced new service to Newcastle, England with Boeing 757 aircraft beginning in May 2006. The aircraft will be fitted with 188 seats all in economy class. American is clearly taking a page out of Continental's book as Continental has been very successful with flights from its nearby Newark hub on 757 aircraft (although Continental's 757s are fitted with both coach and Continental's BusinessFirst international premium class) to many UK destinations such as Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol (which has been a fairly unsuccessful route, see Continental's fire sale on the route) and Edinburgh. The other three destinations have been doing quite well. Continental has also been working on freeing up its wide-body planes (767s and 777s) for Asian and South American Flights and has been trying especially with its European flights to free up aircraft and even run two daily 757s instead of one 767 or 777. Even destinations such as Hamburg or Stockholm are getting 757s. Unfortunately for the airline, many customers feel that the aircraft is uncomfortable for such long flights, but for many, they would rather fly from a more convenient airport such as Birmingham and fly to the states instead of driving to London for flights. The flights to Newcastle will probably work, but American needs to make sure that they have a strong customer base at Newcastle and will be able to offer connections opportunities at JFK. Newark is a huge hub for Continental and connections are easy if you can navigate the terminal, but connections for American passengers at JFK might be more limited, and that alone could destroy the service.