Proof That American Airlines is Actually Making Changes to LAX Ops

Short post today, folks, but I wanted to let you know about this! If you’ve flown American Airlines over the summer to/from LAX, you’ve probably noticed the wildly inconsistent and often late state of the operations there. I’ve flown PHL-LAX every Sunday and Monday since June and can tell you that I’ve built up a pretty good sample size. Back in August, there were rumors of major changes at LAX for American. There was a feeling that the first major change would be to scheduling and I can say that I’ve witnessed this first hand – and it’s working out great.

The actual proof…

Over the summer I would take the 8:25PM flight out of Philadelphia and arrive at LAX around 11:30PM, at which we were typically always met with a ground delay because the departing red-eye flight was still at our gate. AA has two red-eyes that go LAX-PHL (10PM and 12AM). Then on Friday I would take the 1:55PM flight home, which usually always had a good 30-45 minute ground delay, but this is typical of LAX rush times given business travelers leaving on Fridays.

I took a one month hiatus from traveling in September and upon returning to the beat in October, I noticed American had done away with the 8:25PM flight and moved it to 5:55PM ET from PHL-LAX. This was great because once we landed, we never had a problem with getting a gate. The only issue was I had less time at home since I had to depart 3 hours earlier than usual (It’s football season, people!).

As of this week, though, American added back the 8:25PM flight, but kept the 5:55PM flight. This accomplishes two things: 1) one additional evening flight to LAX offers more options for travelers, 2) the 5:55PM flight is the aircraft for the 10PM red-eye back and the 8:25PM flight is the 12AM red-eye, which alleviates the ground delay from the blocked gate.

Here’s to hoping!

I’m not aware of any other scheduling changes at LAX for American, but I imagine if they’re making changes to the PHL route (the route that still uses the geriatric A321 fleet) then other routes will be affected as well. I’m very pleased about this change and thought I would write something to acknowledge publicly AA’s effort.

Here’s to hoping the entire AA operation at LAX changes for the better!

Have any of you experienced a similar circumstance?