Update: American Airlines Permanently Removes Boeing 737 MAX 8 Flights Between Miami & Orange County (2024)

American Airlines will discontinue its transcontinental service between its hub at Miami International Airport (MIA) and John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California, next month. It comes as the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier continues to evaluate its capacity and growth.

The service was short-lived as it has only run since the beginning of this year. American had originally planned to put the route on hiatus, but has since removed the flights from its schedule entirely.

Only lasted eight months

According to aviation data and analytics firm Cirium, American will end the service on August 5th. First announced by the airline in September last year, the route has been the first-ever direct connection between MIA and the Southern California airport. American inaugurated it with its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft on January 8th.

Photo: Channing Reid | Simple Flying

It was initially scheduled as a turn on the same aircraft, originating at MIA in the morning and returning in the evening. However, American subsequently changed the flight times to operate entirely at night and by two different aircraft. The SNA-bound flight, AA2928, departs from MIA at 20:15 and arrives around 22:30 local time. AA298, which journeys to MIA, is a redeye flight, leaving SNA at 20:49 and arriving just after 05:00.

A “difficult decision”

In May, Simple Flying reported that American would be pausing the route. Flight data indicated that the service would temporarily end on August 5th and return three months later on November 5th, in time for increased demand during the busy holiday season. Instead, the carrier determined that it would not bring back the flights.

A spokesperson for the airline confirmed the move in a statement to Simple Flying on Monday.

“As part of an evaluation of our capacity growth plans for 2024, American has made the difficult decision to discontinue service between Miami (MIA) and Orange County (SNA). American will continue to offer service from SNA to six destinations across the U.S. American has proactively reached out to impacted customers with alternate travel arrangements and we apologize for any inconvenience to our customers’ travel journeys.”

AA’s Orange County presence

American offers service from SNA to its other hubs at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX). The only other destination it serves is Austin, Texas, which is a unique route given that the bulk of the airline’s operation is traditionally hub-and-spoke.

Photo:Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock

MIA is one of American’s longest routes from SNA, along with CLT and JFK. Flights to and from CLT are operated by an Airbus A321neo, while the luxurious A321T (Transcon), equipped with lie-flat seats in first class and business class, is deployed on the JFK route.

As two popular markets, the airline likely sees year-round demand between SNA and JFK. Additionally, American is the only carrier that offers nonstop flights to the Big Apple from SNA. United Airlines operates nonstop flights to its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), but its product is not as premium as the carrier uses 737-700s or -800s that only have domestic first class seats.

United does, however, beat American in terms of the longest destination served from SNA. At one point, the Chicago-based airline was the only airline to connect SNA to Honolulu, Hawaii.