Phoenix-London flight expands to year-round

Before its first nonstop flight from Phoenix to London’s Heathrow Airport even takes off, American Airlines is expanding the route thanks to strong bookings from Europe.

American said Thursday that the daily flight to London will now operate year-round. The Dallas-based carrier originally planned to operate the route seasonally, from March 31 to Oct. 26. After strong bookings from Europe to Phoenix over the summer months, the airline saw opportunity to expand the route.

Vasu Raja, vice president of network and schedule planning for American Airlines, said Heathrow Airport is popular with business travelers and the design of the route, which will take off in the afternoon from both Phoenix and Heathrow, will let business travelers maximize their time on the ground.

However, he said the airline was encouraged to see bookings have been a good mix of business and leisure travelers.

“A ton of demand, a lot of unexpected demand from the rest of the world coming into Phoenix and we take that all as a sign that reflects Phoenix’s continued economic power,” Raja said of the decision to expand the route.

Since American and Tempe-based U.S. Airways merged in 2013, there have been questions about where Phoenix fits in American’s system. During its recent earnings call, an airline representative referred to Phoenix as a “flex” market.

Raja agrees with that label, but cautions against misinterpreting it.

“Phoenix, for us, is a really critical part of our network but it plays a different role in our merged companies network than it did in the old U.S. Airways network,” Raja said.

American has two large hubs. Its primary hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which is expanding. The other is Los Angeles International Airport.

With gate limitations at LAX, Raja sees Phoenix as the perfect complement to the system. Sky Harbor gives the airline flexibility to move passengers from east to west as well as to other destinations that aren’t easily accessible from Dallas or Los Angeles.

The airline also sees Phoenix as a growing destination market, perhaps evidenced not only by the European demand for bookings but also by Sky Harbor’s recent announcement that it had a record-breaking year for passengers.

In 2018, it served more than 44.9 million passengers, a 2.3 percent increase over 2017.

Domestically, airlines have seen strong demand from Midwestern markets especially in the winter as travelers try to escape the cold. This, Raja said, gives Phoenix an advantage that American’s competitors don’t have.

“When you have a lot of hubs that are located in the Northeast and the upper Midwest and things like that, demand really tends to wane in the winter. And you have no place to go and send those airplanes,” Raja said.