American Airlines' New Entry Doubles This US Airport's Routes

On October 15, American Airlines’ regional unit, American Eagle, debuted in Santa Maria. It serves the Californian airport from Phoenix, which is not a fortress hub due to Southwest’s strong presence. It has doubled Santa Maria’s network to two routes, joining Allegiant to Las Vegas.

The brand-new route enables passengers to connect across the US and beyond. It is the first time in several years that such connectivity has been available. Previously, United Express flew to two hubs: Los Angeles until 2015 (Mokulele Airlines briefly replaced it) and San Francisco until 2016. Los Angeles had up to six flights a day.

American Eagle Arrives In Santa Maria

The market from Phoenix Sky Harbor has never been served before. Covering 429 nautical miles (795 km) each way, American Eagle operates twice daily using SkyWest’s 76-seat CRJ900s. Aircraft in SkyWest’s own livery have been used. The new market is likely to feature in my Weekly Routes article (see the most recent edition).

The following table provides the schedule for mid-November. As usual, an aircraft will remain overnight at Santa Maria, with a very early 05:03 morning departure to Arizona. This will connect to American’s busy departure bank from Phoenix, with 50+ destinations to choose from between 08:30-10:30.

Schedule analysis using Cirium Diio data shows that American Eagle’s 05:03 departure will be the earliest California-Phoenix service by that regional unit or American mainline. The next earliest departure is at 06:00.

Santa Maria’s Routes Have Now Doubled

Santa Maria’s only other service is provided by Allegiant. As you might predict, it is to Las Vegas, a route that the ultra-low-cost carrier has served for 19 years. It runs twice-weekly on the A319. While previously 100%, Allegiant now provides 12% of Santa Maria’s flights, but 23% of its seats for sale.

Allegiant has had other routes from Santa Maria. It flew to Honolulu in 2012-2013 (the long-since-retired 757 was used) and Portland in 2021. It flew to Mesa, the Phoenix metro’s secondary airport, between 2007-2008 and again from 2020-2022.

Santa Maria has regained Phoenix service for the first time in three years. Obviously, American Eagle’s entry is significantly more important than this. While Allegiant revolves solely around point-to-point traffic and consequently has low frequencies on higher-capacity equipment, American Eagle’s twice-daily offering is massively about wider connectivity.

American Now Serves 17 Californian Airports

American and its regional partner will fly to 17 airports in the state in November. This is one more than Alaska Airlines and United, and four more than Delta and Southwest. It is eight more than Frontier (just one of its 15 route launches in six days involved California), and 15 more than the troubled Spirit and JetBlue.

It is not just Santa Maria that is new to American’s map this year. It began flying to Carlsbad, north of San Diego, in February. American Eagle previously served the airport in 1999, when it flew to Los Angeles. Now it is to Phoenix, with Envoy Air running twice-daily on E175s.