MONTEREY – The highly-anticipated American Airlines route between Monterey Regional Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is on track to take flight come April 2 say airport and airline officials meeting in Monterey on Thursday.
“I think it speaks well for the community,” said Dale Morris, American Airlines representative who was attending the meeting in Monterey on Thursday.
Morris said the pitch made by the Monterey Regional Aiport delegation to American Airlines planning staff in May was compelling enough to get this route going. And the aircraft will be a step up from what American is using to fly to Phoenix, its current established route from Monterey.
“We’ll be using a new, top-of-the-line regional jet for American,” said Morris.
The American Airlines MRY-DFW route will be operated on a 76-seat, Embraer E-175, with 12 seats in first-class and 64 in the main cabin. American first bought the jets in 2015 from Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer.
The new route will be seasonal, starting April 2 and continuing to Nov. 3, 2019.
Morris said the route projected well. “I know there’s a large number of people in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with connections here. We expect very robust business.”
Even with an industry-wide problem of pilot and aircraft shortages, Monterey Regional Airport was fortunate to land the route.
American Airlines reached a lease agreement in March with Dallas/Fort Worth, its largest hub, which allowed it to increase service from the airport. The result – 15 new regional gates after completion of renovations in the summer of 2019.
One of the new domestic additions to American’s daily service schedule is DFW-MRY which is part of the airline’s plan to grow its Dallas/Fort Worth operations from about 800 peak daily departures to about 900 by next summer.
The route will open 130 destinations from DFW to places such as Dublin and Munich as well as spots in South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, among others.
Morris pointed out with the potential for traffic from those destinations coming here, it stands to possibly make the Monterey airport an even stronger economic engine for the community.
American’s new route may be seasonal now, but with community support, including from the military and agri-business, the MRY-DFW connection could quickly become a year-round, non-stop, daily service.
Even though there was a public/private partnership between the Monterey Regional Airport and Fly Monterey, a community air service development committee, that submitted an application for a Small Community Air Service Development Program grant to gain expanded air service to the Texas destination a couple of years ago, that effort came up short.
But American Airlines’ recognition of the potential for this market warranted the air carrier to take a chance on the route.
There is no back-stopping here, it’s at-risk for American Airlines, said Morris.
“We’ll have to see the numbers and how it performs” before making the decision to make the route year-round, said Morris. “I’m convinced we’ll have that support and be a success.”
At the Monterey Regional Airport, the new American Airlines route to Dallas/Fort Worth will be in addition to its Phoenix route. Alaska Airlines flies to San Diego, Allegiant has service to Las Vegas, and United serves San Francisco, Los Angeles and started its Denver route in October.
