American Airlines plans to compete with the likes of Spirit Airlines and Frontier on ‘no frills’ low fares from next year.
It has identified markets like Dallas, Chicago and Orlando where low cost carriers provide stiff competition for full service legacy carriers.
"We have to compete for them. We can’t just walk away from that size of the business," said American president Scott Kirby.
"We will do more to disaggregate and really do more to have a product that has less frills. That will allow us to offer a product that is competitive on price with ultra-low-cost carriers."
Kirby did not elaborate on what frills will be removed from the fare or specific routes being considered yet.
The reasoning behind this is to grab more business from the once-a year traveler.
American said 87% of customers fly with the airline just once a year on average and cost is overwhelmingly the most important factor.
