American Airlines is definitley making thier presence stronger in Ft. Lauderdale. They are now the #3 carrier, and are very well on track to pass #2 Southwest as soon as late December. I've heard rumours that the FLL growth will continue. It allows American Airlines to retain important Miami area customers who are tired of MIA/located more convienently to FLL. American tried to get the route authority exemption to fly Lauderdale-Bogota after Aces' was liquidated, but it went, (no surprise), to Avianca. I have heard that possible flights to Washington/National and San Jose, Costa Rica are being looked at from Lauderdale.
This winter, American Airlines will offer up to 38 daily flights from Lauderdale to Dallas, O'Hare, St. Louis, San Juan, Boston, LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Caracas, Santo Domingo, Port-Au-Prince, Nassau, and Raleigh. Without coincidence, all of these destinations rank among the 25 largest O&D pairs from the Miami area. MIA-CCS, MIA-PAP, MIA-SDQ, and MIA-NAS are all among the top 50 international O&D pairs in the United States (so are MIA-SJO, MIA-MAD, MIA-GRU, and MIA-LHR). I hope that AA keeps on growing at FLL (as well as MIA). It is a smart move to keep thier customer base.