Logan International Airport’s biggest carrier for most of the
past decade has shrunk to the fifth-largest, carrying just 11 percent of the airport’s passengers last year, down from a peak of 21 percent in 2004. The carrier now flies to just six cities nonstop from Boston, down from 33 in 2003
. At the end of March, the number of American nonstop destinations out of Boston will fall even further when the carrier cuts its only remaining international flight, to London.
Even before the airline declared bankruptcy in 2011 and entered into
merger talks with US Airways expected to be completed soon,
American Airlines was pulling back from second-tier cities to focus on its five biggest domestic markets: Dallas-Fort Worth, where the airline is based, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
These five cities are also the only destinations American will fly to nonstop from Boston after it drops its London service. The carrier also operates seasonal service between Boston and Paris.