Like all major airlines, American Airlines will have a significantly reduced network in 2021, but the carrier also will benefit from several new partnerships—including some previously frosty relationships that it now has thawed.
Led by then-SVP of network strategy Vasu Raja, who in June was promoted to the newly created position of chief revenue officer, American in February announced it would partner with Alaska Airlines to form a "West Coast International Alliance." The partnership—which includes codesharing, reciprocal loyalty program and Alaska's entry into the Oneworld alliance next year—connects Alaska domestic West Coast network with American's international network in Los Angeles and Seattle, where American is adding service to London and Bangalore next year.
American took a similar approach with a new partnership with JetBlue, which the carriers announced in July. American plans to connect its international network out of New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport with JetBlue's expansive domestic network. JetBlue does not plan to join the Oneworld alliance, however.
American also restarted codesharing with Qatar Airways this year. Though both Oneworld partners, American had ended its codeshare relationship with Qatar in 2017 amid the long-running dispute between U.S. carriers and Gulf carriers over allegations of Open Skies violations. American now sees working with Qatar as part of its plan to build its network to the Middle East, India and Africa.
American is relying on those relationships, along with long-established relationships with British Airways parent company International Airlines Group, as it refocuses its hub strategy and plans for smaller international operations in a post-Covid world, with Dallas-Fort Worth as its major transpacific hub, Miami its key hub for Latin America and the Caribbean and Philadelphia a major transpacific hub.
"In a world where there is less demand than there is supply, it makes what we do across these different partnerships so critical," Raja said. "What hasn't changed is having a large and expansive network is very valuable, and we do that both by flying to places ourselves and by having partnerships that enable connectivity, and by using these partnerships to grow our own organic network."