With the end of the year in sight, American Airlines has painted a picture of its performance in 2024 that details some of the key operating highlights during the year, even though it still has more than three weeks to run.
Yesterday, American Airlines (American) released its By The Numbers Wrap of 2024, giving an insight into the scope of American's activities and a look at the passengers at the heart of its business.
The headline number is that by the end of the year, American Airlines will have flown more than 2.1 million flights across 1.8 billion miles—enough to circumnavigate the Earth nearly 74,000 times.
On those flights, it has offered more than 275 million seats, and rather than just put up a set of numbers, American has delved up a little deeper to reveal:
- Many of its customers arrive at the airport early enough for a pick-me-up, as the airline served more than 594,000 espressos in its nearly 50 lounges.
- Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge bartenders served more than 420,000 complimentary glasses of sparkling wine.
- On the snack front, American orders almost 124 million packs of Biscoff cookies each year and caters an average of nearly 6,000 carts daily.
- Once settled onboard with a drink, coffee and cookie, American passengers prefer action flicks as the most watched movie genre, while those watching TV mostly go for comedy.
- Customers on long-haul and international flights to destinations such as London, UK; Brisbane, Australia and Buenos Aries, Argentina, were treated to more than three million amenity kits containing skincare products from Thirteen Lune.
As one of the world's largest airlines, with flights to more than 350 destinations in 60 countries, American customers can reach almost all global hotspots.
In 2024, the top three destinations for couples are Cancun, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Las Vegas. In a nod to where the kids want to go, the top three destinations for families are Cancun, Orlando, Florida and London, UK.
Orlando, Boston and Austin, Texas, are the top three domestic destinations for AAdvantage members to redeem their miles, while London, Cancun and San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, are the three most popular international choices for miles redemption.
Digging even further to uncover quirky details, American found that customers traveling to Athens, Greece; Rome and Naples, Italy, are the top three for booking flights furthest in advance.
American's three longest routes are Brisbane-Dallas-Fort Worth (8,303 miles), Los Angeles-Sydney (7,488 miles) and Auckland, New Zealand-Dallas-Fort Worth at 7,440 miles.
American operates short, medium and long-haul domestic and international services to more than 350 destinations, which requires a broad mix of aircraft.
According to data from ch-aviation, American has a fleet of 994 aircraft and has orders with Airbus and Boeing for a further 329 new jets.
The fleet is split almost equally between Airbus narrowbodies (481) and Boeing aircraft (493), while there are 20 MD-83 included in the listing but all are shown as inactive.
The Airbus fleet includes A319-100s, A320-200s, A321-200s and A321neos, and the Boeing aircraft include 737-800s, 737 MAX 8s, 777-200ERs, 777-300ERs, 787-8s and 787-9 Dreamliners.
To add even more places for its customers to explore, American is adding more than 20 new routes in 2025, including these:
- Athens (ATH) to Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT)
- Carlsbad, California (CLD) to Phoenix (PHX)
- Madrid (MAD) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
- Rome (FCO) to Miami (MIA)
- Venice (VCE) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (EDI) to Philadelphia (PHL).
American is also encouraging customers who are not already members of its AAdvantage travel rewards program to join. The airline said enrolling is free and starting to earn miles toward that next adventure is easy.
