Located between Washington and New York, Philadelphia ended 2021 with 19.6 million passengers. That was up by 66% on 2020's numbers but still down by 41% over 2019, mainly thanks to American Airlines. Philly was the country's 21st-busiest airport, one ahead of Baltimore but one below Salt Lake City.
American's fifth-largest hub
This summer, Philadelphia is American's fifth-largest hub, whether measured by flights, seats for sale, or available seat miles (ASMs), as shown in the table below.
According to OAG data, the oneworld carrier has 67% of the Pennsylvania airport's seats. As 70% is the cutoff point for a fortress hub, Philadelphia falls short, helped by recent growth from ULCCs Frontier and Spirit and American's sluggish recovery.
This summer, American's Philly seats are at 83% of their pre-pandemic level, far lower than its other leading hubs. Chicago is next (88%), while Charlotte (103%), Dallas (106%), and Miami (118%) have all exceeded previous levels.
American will again focus Philadelphia on as being the carrier's core hub for European flights. Key will be incoming A321XLRs, likely from 2023, helping to add new routes while making existing routes year-round.
|
American's top hubs |
Summer flights |
Summer seats |
Summer ASMs |
|
Dallas Fort Worth |
176,806 |
23.6 million |
25.0 billion |
|
Charlotte |
131,332 |
16.0 million |
13.7 billion |
|
Miami |
84,953 |
11.2 million |
12.3 billion |
|
Chicago O'Hare |
71,482 |
9.5 million |
9.7 billion |
|
Philadelphia |
59,098 |
6.9 million |
8.3 billion |
Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.
A day in the life: April 22nd, 2022
On this specific day, American (and its regional partner) have 93 routes from Philadelphia with 249 departures, 498 movements, and 28,132 departing seats.
Eight in ten routes are domestic, with an international offering (ordered by seats) to London Heathrow, Cancun, Montego Bay, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Paris CDG, Dublin, Rome, Lisbon, Madrid, Zurich, Toronto, Aruba, Santiago (Dominican Republic), Punta Cana, Montreal, and Bermuda.
American's average sector distance from Philadelphia is 860 miles (1,384km), with Harrisburg its shortest route, a mere 84 miles (135km). Served 4x daily, it uses 50-seat Embraer 145s. As I show below, such small regional jets are crucial to American at the hub.
Discover more aviation news.
Top-10 routes
Boston has more seats (and flights) than any other route from Philadelphia, with the A321ceo, A321neo, and A319 used. When writing, AA1153 has taken off to Massachusetts using N444UW, an A321neo delivered in January this year.
- Boston: 1,340 departing seats on April 22nd; 8x outbound flights
- Miami: 1,338; 7x
- Dallas Fort Worth: 1,330; 7x
- Chicago O'Hare: 1,156; 7x
- Charlotte: 1,148; 7x
- Phoenix: 1,146; 6x
- Orlando: 1,112; 6x
- Los Angeles: 980; 5x
- Tampa: 680; 4x
- Las Vegas; 576; 3x
Just 113 seats per flight
This April day, American has just 113 seats per flight at Philadelphia, based on OAG data. Of other top-five hubs, that's less than Miami (154), Dallas (130), and Charlotte (121). But Chicago is even lower (108).
Philadelphia's low figure is obviously driven by heavy RJ use, crucial when the carrier has so many waves at the airport. Indeed, the Embraer 145 has more departures today than any of the other 11 aircraft types, as shown below. Across all RJs, they have virtually six in every ten flights (58%).
- Embraer 145: 55x departures in April 22nd
- A321ceo: 44x
- CRJ-700: 32x
- CRJ-900: 29x
- Embraer 175: 29x
- A319: 17x
- A321neo: 14x
- A320ceo: 10x
- B787-8: 10x
- B737-800: 7x
- B787-9: 2x
Will you be flying to, from, or through Philadelphia this summer? Let us know in the comments.