Fort Worth-based American Airlines is switching to buses for shorter routes from Philadelphia, the latest carrier to contract with Landline for connecting “flights” operated with buses.
The move comes as U.S. airlines face the concurrent challenges from a pilot shortage, primarily impacting regional operators, and higher fuel prices that have forced airlines to trim schedules.
Landline will connect American’s Philadelphia hub to Lehigh Valley airport near Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the airport in Atlantic City, New Jersey, beginning June 3, according to Airline Weekly.
The destinations are 70 miles and 56 miles from the Philadelphia airport, according to Google Maps. And while Atlantic City is a new addition to American’s map, it serves Allentown — with planes — from several of its other hubs and flew Philadelphia-Allentown until suspending the route early in the pandemic, in May 2020.
The partnership is similar to ones Landline has with Sun Country Airlines in Minneapolis-St. Paul and United Airlines in Denver. Buses will be painted in an American livery, tickets will be sold exclusively by the airline as its own “flights,” and bags will be transferred between buses and planes as with any connecting flight. But the new American pact takes the tie up one step further: Pending approvals, travelers will clear security in Allentown and Atlantic City and arrive airside at a yet-to-be-determined gate in Philadelphia.
Landline gives airlines another tool to expand their networks to destinations near their hubs. Buses make some routes economically feasible that are not with a plane. For example, American predecessor US Airways served Atlantic City nonstop from Philadelphia on and off until 2003. The route is unlikely to be considered today with the poor fuel economics of 50-seat regional jets — the smallest in American’s regional fleet — and proximity of the city to Philadelphia.
One other advantage of buses is lowering carbon emissions. Buses can “reduce carbon emission of a regional flight by 80 or 90% today,” according to Landline CEO David Sunde.
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