American 'special events' capacity benefits sports, music fans

Lovers of sports contests, concerts and even shareholder meetings are set to benefit from increased services by American Airlines to special events in 2020. American is adding flights to support special events such as golf tournaments in Augusta, Georgia, music festivals in Palm Springs, California, and even the annual Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. The special events increase includes a direct Los Angeles-Palm Springs service in April and a new Embraer-175 service to Augusta from Boston as well as the upgauging of an existing service from Chicago. READ: Emirates establishes Mexican beachhead with expanded Interjet deal American says it will have the most seats of any airline to the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky  Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville in May with services from Boston, Charlotte, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia. “It’s important to spend time and resources on memorable experiences, and we want to make sure our customers have options when it comes to the most important events around the country throughout the year,” American senior vice president of network strategy Vasu Raja said. “We’re adding more seats, introducing new routes and making sure that our customers are taken care of throughout their travel journey.” American this week also announced two new routes from the Texas cultural and technology hot spot Austin to Boston and California’s Silicon Valley. The airline said the routes were in response to strong demand from customers who need to travel between Austin and the tech centers in San Jose and Boston. Flights will operate twice daily, Monday through Friday, on a Boeing 737-800, year-round. The aircraft features high-speed Wi-Fi, access to power at every seat and 16 first-class seats and the schedule will allow customers to attend early meetings and return home in time for dinner. American recently renovated the Admirals Club in Austin and by the end of the year will have five contiguous gates at the airport. And from May 9, it will introduce the only service from Austin to Los Cabos, Mexico on Saturdays and Sundays.