American Airlines said it will announce the timing of the changes 'in the coming weeks.' 17 cities axed on D.C. flight routes

Detroit, Minneapolis, San Diego and 14 other cities will lose their direct American Airlines flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the newly merged airline announced Wednesday, blaming the cuts on slots it had to give up as a condition of its merger with US Airways.

American is also cutting three direct flights from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.


The airline said it will announce the timing of the changes “in the coming weeks.”

It has to surrender some of its slots at both airports and others nationwide under an agreement late last year with the Justice Department, which had sued to block the merger on the grounds that it would give the new American Airlines too much control over much of the nation’s aviation market. Many of those slots will probably be scooped up by low-cost competitors like Southwest and JetBlue — but whatever airlines win those slots will decide which cities to serve.

Members of Congress, who rely heavily on Reagan National for flights to and from their districts, had lobbied the Obama administration heavily to ensure that their communities wouldn’t lose nonstop service as part of the deal.

Besides Detroit, Minneapolis and San Diego, the communities losing their direct service from Reagan National include two state capitals — Little Rock, Ark., and Tallahassee, Fla. — as well as Augusta and Savannah, Ga.; Fayetteville, Wilmington and Jacksonville, N.C.; Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; Islip, N.Y.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Omaha, Neb.; Montreal; and Nassau, Bahamas.

Atlanta, Cleveland and Minneapolis will no longer have direct service from LaGuardia.

“We’re very sorry to see these non stops go,” American said in a tweet to a POLITICO reporter.

On the other hand, Senate Transportation Subcommittee ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was pleased to see that the airline was keeping direct service to Bangor and Portland, Maine. She said she would discuss the specifics of the flight changes Thursday with new American Airlines CEO Doug Parker.

“As I first explained to Mr. Parker when the airlines began this review, reductions in service can have a detrimental impact on small- and medium-size airports like those in Maine, on surrounding local communities and on consumers, by limiting options and increasing prices,” Collins said.

It’s not all bad news for cities outside the Beltway — American will add a second daily nonstop from Reagan National to Los Angeles to replace the dropped direct service to San Diego. And the airline will add service from LaGuardia to Little Rock; Charlottesville, Norfolk, Roanoke and Richmond, Va.; Dayton, Ohio; Greensboro and Wilmington, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Louisville, Ky.

American President Scott Kirby said the service changes “are not expected to impact our employees.”

Andrew Nocella, American’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said the airline is announcing the flight changes before other airlines pick up the slots it is being forced to divest, hoping that “our competitors who acquire our slots and gates will maintain service to the impacted cities.”