American Airlines suspends its flights to Australia

American Airlines has suspended cargo flights to Australia, due to the country’s cap on passenger numbers – and other carriers are expected to follow suit.

Last month, after the Australian government halved arrivals to 3,000 a week, American announced it would suspend passenger flights for two months from 1 September.

The airline was hoping to continue its “very successful” all-cargo flights, but has told cargo agents all its aircraft were needed in the northern hemisphere, where an upsurge in tourism had created “unprecedented demand for wide-body passenger aircraft, into regions normally serviced by narrow-body planes.”

The move effectively sees the Qantas partner airline pull out of Australian skies, given that LAX-Sydney was American’s only route ‘down under’.

American Airlines has recently begun flying its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner’s from Los Angeles to Sydney in a cargo-only mode without any paying passengers, although uniformed crew are on the flight to bring passengers and cargo back from Sydney to Los Angeles.

As of July 14, international arrivals at Sydney Airport were capped to 1,505 per week, following the federal government’s decision to cut the number of international passengers allowed to enter Australia until early 2022 by half, from 6,070 to 3,035.

This sparked fears that some foreign airlines would cancel Australian flights.

The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, which represents 33 major international carriers that operate 90 percent of all international passenger flights to the country in normal times, warned last month that due to the drop in arrivals, some airlines may be forced to cancel flights.

Previously, many international airlines carried only about 35 passengers (or 10% of their total capacity) on each flight to Australia.