By Channing Reid
The carrier’s motive remains unclear, but it will return before the busy holiday travel season at the end of the year.
Summary
- American Airlines will be putting its Miami to Orange County route on hiatus in August.
- The carrier uses Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the route.
- More than 20,000 seats will be lost during the 3-month break.
Less than a year after introducing new nonstop service between Miami and Orange County, California, American Airlines is planning to put its route on a brief hiatus this fall. The carrier will continue to serve the route through the summer before axing it temporarily in August.
The service is the first-ever nonstop connection between the two destinations. Since its launch in January, American has deployed its Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the route.
Three-month break
According to aviation data and analytics firm Cirium, American will suspend flights between its hub at Miami International Airport (MIA) and John Wayne Airport (SNA) on August 5th. The service will be on hiatus for exactly three months as data indicates it is slated to return on November 5th, just in time for increased demand during the busy holiday season.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying
This month, American scheduled near-daily flights between MIA and SNA. With the exception of May 1st, the airline will operate a total of 60 flights on the route – 30 in each direction. In June, the frequencies will dwindle slightly to 23 flights each way, totaling 46 flights. They will be operated five times weekly on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Interested in this route? Check out flights between Miami & Orange County right here!
The flights will increase slightly throughout July, returning to near-daily frequencies, except for July 2nd and 3rd. In both directions,29 flights will be operated, accounting for a total of 58 flights on the route. The service will continue into August, with the last flight operating on August 5th.
Losing nearly 21,000 seats
The carrier’s 737 MAX 8 accommodates 172 passengers in two classes. First class has 16 recliner seats with 37 inches of pitch and 21 inches of width, while the main cabin has 156 seats with widths between 16.6 and 17.8 inches. 24 main cabin seats are branded as “Main Cabin Extra” seats with a seat pitch of 33 inches, offering three more inches of legroom compared to the standard main cabin seats.
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With 172 total seats, American is offering 10,320 seats on the route this month, accounting for more than 23.8 million available seat miles (ASMs). In June, 7,912 seats will be offered with over 18.2 million ASMs, while July will see just under 10,000 seats and more than 23 million ASMs. With only five flights scheduled in August, American will offer only 1,720 seats. The temporary three-month suspension results in a loss of nearly 21,000 seats on the route. Simple Flying contacted American for details on why the carrier is cutting the flights, but a representative could not be immediately reached on Sunday.
American’s MAX 8 routes
The MAX 8 is no stranger to both MIA and SNA. American operates numerous flights from MIA on the aircraft type to destinations such as the Caribbean and Latin America. Domestically, the carrier has scheduled the MAX 8 on flights up the East Coast to Boston, New York, Washington DC, Minneapolis in the Midwest, and San Francisco on the West Coast. The aircraft has also notably operated short intra-Florida hops between MIA and Orlando.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
At SNA, American mainly utilizes the plane type on flights to Phoenix and Chicago; however, those routes are also operated by other aircraft, such as the 737-800 or Airbus narrowbodies. When the airline introduced the MIA-SNA route in January of this year, Miami became its seventh destination at SNA, after Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York–JFK, and Phoenix.
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