Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) is located 6 miles East of Downtown Phoenix, within the city of Phoenix in the state of Arizona. It is American Airlines’ gateway to the Mountain West and Southwest, and it provides connections within the Southwest, California, and East/West traffic flows. It is currently American Airlines’ (AA) 5th largest hub, using data between April 2024 and April 2025. In the article below, we will look at the ins and outs of American’s Phoenix hub from both its local dynamics to the need it fulfills for American itself.
About Phoenix
As of the 2023 demographic numbers provided by data.census.gov, the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area has 720,728 foreign-born residents. This makes it the 16th largest metropolitan area for foreign-born residents. Phoenix’s largest immigrant groups by country are Mexico, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Guatemala. The Phoenix-Chandler-Mesa metro area increased in population by 212,148 between 2018 and 2023, which represented a 4.2% population increase.
As of the end of 2023, the Phoenix metropolitan area had a GDP of $322.8 billion, which represented 7.3% growth between 2021 and 2023.
About American's Hub at PHX
- Population within 100 KM of PHX: 5.68 million
- Total passenger count at PHX between April 2024 and April 2025: 50,525,856
- Total passengers carried by American and its regional subsidiaries: 20,211,206
- Total passenger count in the Phoenix Metro Area between April 2024 and April 2025: 52,501,705
- Percentage of traffic at PHX carried by AA: 40.0%
- Percentage of traffic at PHX carried by AA for all airports in the Phoenix Metro area: 38.5%
Destinations Served...
As of April 2025, AA serves 89 domestic and 13 international destinations. Of those, 80 domestic and 9 international destinations are served year-round, with at least four flights per week.
Americans’ Overall Load Factor at PHX was 85.23% between April 2024 and April 2025. The highest LF routes from PHX on AA were (must have at least 36 yearly departures):
First the Highest...
- Honolulu (HNL): 91.38%
- Orlando (MCO): 90.66%
- Madison (MSN): 90.58%
- Newark (EWR): 90.43%
- New York City (JFK): 90.36%
- Kona (KOA): 89.72%
- Charlotte (CLT): 89.68%
- Cedar Rapids (CID): 89.63%
- Boston (BOS): 89.22%
- Washington, DC (DCA): 89.17%
...and the Lowest.
- El Paso (ELP): 70.65%
- Las Vegas (LAS): 69.47%
- Aspen (ASE): 67.03%
- Tijuana, MX (TIJ): 65.83%
- Billings (BIL): 60.48
- Vail (CO): 60.03%
- Monterrey (MTY): 59.56%
- Yuma (YUM): 59.28%
- Flagstaff (FLG): 58.52%
- Provo (PVU): 57.51%
Connectivity
On average, between April 2024 and April 2025, 13,969 passengers connect at PHX on AA daily each way. Of those, 12,988 were making purely domestic connections, and 981 were making connections with an international component. These figures mostly represent American Airlines and its marketed flights, but also those that fly into PHX on another carrier to connect to American.
Fleet Breakdown at AA's PHX Hub
In April 2025, American averaged 289 departures a day from its PHX hub. Of these, 169 were mainline flights operated by American itself, and 120 were regional flights operated by American’s regional partners. This makes a 58.5% Mainline operation.
Phoenix as an O&D Market for American
On average, between April 2024 and April 2025, American flies 14,128 daily O&D passengers from PHX daily, non-directionally averaged between April 2024 and April 2025 (PDEW).
- Of the 14,128 total O&D passengers, 12,806 passengers carried by AA to/from PHX are domestic O&D.
- Domestic O&D is up by 594 PDEW or 4.7% since 2019.
- Below are the largest domestic O&D markets carried by AA to/from PHX.
Domestic O&D to/from PHX by AA Hub...
- Dallas (DFW): 781
- Chicago (ORD): 718
- Philadelphia (PHL): 483
- Charlotte (CLT): 432
- Miami (MIA): 400
- New York City (JFK): 333
- Los Angeles (LAX): 331
- Washington, DC (DCA): 323
...and by non-AA Hub.
- Boston (BOS): 399
- Newark (EWR): 329
- Orlando (MCO): 276
- San Francisco (SFO): 265
- Las Vegas (LAS): 240
- Santa Ana (SNA): 235
- San Diego (SAN): 200
- Portland (PDX): 197
- Austin (AUS): 196
- Denver (DEN): 195
- Tampa (TPA): 184
- Atlanta (ATL): 184
- Detroit (DTW): 167
- Sacramento (SMF): 155
- Indianapolis (IND): 145
- Minneapolis (MSP): 139
- Raleigh (RDU): 139
- Columbus (CMH): 137
- San Antonio (SAT): 134
- AA carries 1,322 international O&D passengers on average, non-directional, daily to/from PHX.
- This is up by 480 PDEW or 36.3% since 2019.
- Below are the largest international O&D markets to/from PHX by passengers carried by AA.
Top International Leisure Destinations by O&D...
- Cancun (CUN): 166
- San Jose del Cabo (SJD): 156
- Puerto Vallarta (PVR): 145
- Mazatlan (MZT): 28
- Punta Cana (PUJ): 26
....and top non-Leisure based International Destinations.
- Mexico City (MEX): 110
- London (LHR): 67
- Guadalajara (GDL): 48
- Monterrey (MTY): 18
- Toronto (YYZ): 18
- Santo Domingo (SDQ): 17
- Rome (FCO): 17
- Madrid (MAD): 16
- Dublin (DUB): 15
Largest Markets Unserved by AA at PHX: Domestic
- Chicago (MDW): 874
- Dallas (DAL): 632
- Oakland (OAK): 624
- Baltimore (BWI): 445
- Houston (HOU): 398
Largest Markets Unserved by AA at PHX: International
- Calgary (YYC): 307
- Toronto (YYZ): 275
- Vancouver (YVR): 253
- Edmonton (YEG): 149
- Paris (CDG): 83
- Taipei (TPE): 70
The Present and Future of AA's Hub at PHX: what is and what is possible.
Beyond O&D, PHX’s main role involves connecting cities East of the Rockies with smaller airports in Southern California and the Mountain West. The hub is almost entirely domestic, with 94.2% of passengers traveling solely within the United States. AA is the market share leader at PHX, but it faces strong competition from Southwest (WN). Given both the domestic nature of AA’s hub at PHX and WN’s route network, the competition will always be there. What does this mean for the hub?
Competition at PHX: AA and WN
Currently, AA has a 40.0% share at PHX while WN has a 32.7% share. AA serves 101 destinations as opposed to WN’s 55, and AA has a load factor of 85.23% vs. WN’s 79.20%. On paper, AA seems to have a firm leg up on WN, but the details are more complicated.
- WN is the market share leader of 6 of the top 15 O&Ds out of PHX. AA is the leader of only 2. The rest have other airlines leading them (UA, AS, and DL).
- Looking at domestic flights only, between April 2019 and April 2025, WN has grown by 1,701 PDEW in the PHX market. AA has grown by only 593.
- By O&D, WN carries 16,630 PDEW as opposed to AA’s 14,128.
- On the flipside, AA commands higher fare premiums in most routes where AA and WN compete. In total, the average one-way fare WN gets in PHX on domestic flights is $149. AA gets $226.
Below is a chart that breaks down the O&D each airline gets from PHX by region of the US. As well as maps showing the largest O&D stations for each airline from PHX.
A pattern emerges between AA and WN at PHX. WN excels in short-distance flights where it operates at a higher frequency. AA excels at attracting O&D on longer flights where many travelers prefer the option of a more premium product (lounges, first class, etc.).
Competition at PHX: Foreign Carriers
To gain an understanding of AA’s approach to international demand at PHX, first, we need to understand the demand the local market produces. Below is a graph showing PHX’s international O&D by region.
The first thing that stands out is that Canada, Mexico, and Europe are the largest O&D markets from Phoenix. Yet, AA does not fly from PHX to Canada at all. AA does fly from PHX to 12 destinations in Mexico, but only one in Europe. This may seem odd; however, there are good reasons why this is.
1) PHX-Canada Point of Sale
While large, PHX-Canada is largely Canada’s point of sale. 70.4% of the market originates in Canada. Air Canada (AC) and WestJet (WS) both fly from PHX to 10 different cities in Canada. Not only would AA be up against a lot of competition from AC and WS, but with a point of sale in Canada being so high, AA would not be the preffered carrier in the market.
2) The PHX-Mexico market is concentrated in only a few places
The below graph shows the largest O&D markets in Mexico from Phoenix:
The O&D is heavily centered on just five markets. AA flies to all of those as well as the other five listed in this graph. There is probably not much more AA could do in Mexico from PHX that they wouldn’t rather do at their mega hub at DFW (which is also a much larger O&D market to Mexico).
3) PHX is poorly located for connections to Europe
It’s not that the market between PHX and London is small per se, but within the realm of AA’s route network, there are hubs with not only better geography but larger O&D demand to Europe. The other issue is that AA uses PHX largely to feed smaller cities in Southern California. With non-stop flights available to almost every major European city from Los Angeles (LAX), most will opt to make the drive and get a straight flight. PHX is served by both AA’s partner British Airways as well as Air France.
4) PHX is located too close to LAX to be emphasized for flights to Asia
LAX is the largest O&D point for demand to East and Southeast Asia in North America. It is also a hub for AA. AA has also decided that it prefers DFW for its flights to Asia. PHX is going to be served with direct flights to Taipei (TPE) by Starlux and China Airlines, as TPE is the largest O&D between PHX and Asia.
What more can AA do with their PHX hub?
The Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metropolitan area is one of the fastest-growing in the United States. This certainly bodes well for future air service. What can we look for?
AA’s hub at PHX is overwhelmingly domestic, and it will likely remain that way, but there are still plenty of places that AA could serve from PHX that they currently do not. PHX is a very easy market to mature because of its appeal to people from cold-weather environments (especially the Midwest) in Winter time. Smaller markets in the Midwest that can be reached with regional equipment seem a good next step. Additionally, smaller airports in the Mountain West and West Coast would be prime for service to PHX. Examples would be places like Appleton (ATW), Rapid City (RAP), Bismarck (BIS), and Peoria (PIA). These are all large markets, but are served by Allegiant to Phoenix-Mesa (AZA) airport. AA could win these by offering more consistent service.
I see little, if any, expansion between PHX and Mexico or PHX and Canada right now. Travel trends are currently downward between the US and Canada, and PHX would be especially vulnerable because of the market’s high point of sale in Canada. As for Mexico, AA already serves all the places in Mexico where PHX has significant O&D. I would look to DFW for anything further to Mexico from AA.
As far as Europe is concerned, I would like to see AA or their partner Iberia (IB) open up PHX-Madrid (MAD) seasonally. MAD is a major hub for AA’s joint venture partnership in Europe, and the connection between the two cities would offer hubs on both ends with which to funnel traffic. I would have said Level (LL) would have been a better fit for the Phoenix market as it caters more towards leisure traffic, but LL is not part of the joint venture AA has with IB. Still, AA does have a basic partnership with LL and I would not rule out PHX-BCN on LL at some point.
Where the PHX-Asia market is concerned, TPE is the prize. As two carriers have both announced they will be serving the market, I do not see AA jumping into the fray. While PHX-TYO would be good from a network perspective, with LAX so close and LAX-TYO served so well by AA and their joint venture partner Japan Airlines (JL), I do not envision this as a priority for AA or JL. PHX-TYO does not have the demand or the growth that PHX-TPE has had, and PHX is not just close to LAX but (from a network perspective) not far enough from DFW for it to be a consideration.
We can see from the data that PHX is not a major source for O&D to Central or South America, and with DFW and (especially) Miami (MIA), both much bigger and better located geographically, I don’t look for anything here.
PHX has a bright, but limited future, for its status as a hub for AA. It is stable and provides great domestic demand for the airline. But most of the expansion I envision would be domestic as opposed to international. AA can do more with PHX than it currently is, but its relatively poor location for connections is going to hurt it for consideration for future service.
Amol Sharma
September 8, 2025Very interesting stuff – what are your thoughts on AA launching a potential PHX-CDG to compete with Air France and try to push them out of the market? Given Phoenix’s relatively lower per capita income / lesser business importance, I would assume much of this traffic is leisure driven from the US-point of sale, and the route has a meaningful PDEW of 83 with AF serving it year-round. That makes me think that AF is capturing a chunk of that 1k+ PHX O&D European traffic.
Given AA doesn’t have any West Coast / Mountain service to CDG, it could potentially route OneWorld (including AS + Hawaiian’s) frequent fliers from LAX, SAN, SFO, SMF, HNL, etc. + smaller SoCal in addition to the PHX local market.
Branson Heinz
September 10, 2025It is an interesting thought, but I would think that they would need PHX-LHR to work year round. I would also think they would be more likely to maintain ORD-CDG year round.
Manuel dlR
September 14, 2025Agreed AA needs to focus on LHR going back to year round.
I’m curious if MAD comes online in the next 3-5 years. It could provide better options to Southern Europe (BCN, LIS, FCO, MXP, VCE, ATH, NCE) and LHR focuses on Northern Europe market (DUB, CDG, AMS, FRA, MUC, ZRH, GVA, CPG, ARN).