How American Airlines became No. 1 in the south:
Before the pandemic, American was already poised to take advantage of airport construction that added gates at Charlotte and Dallas, its two biggest hubs, and at Washington National. During the pandemic, it added code share partners Jet Blue in the Northeast and Alaska in the Northwest, both regions where it had been relatively weak.
Before the pandemic, the two carriers’ key Southern hubs were also the top three single carrier hubs in the world. Delta had about 1,000 peak daily departures in Atlanta, while American had 900 in Dallas and 700 in Charlotte. This May, Delta will have 755 in Atlanta, while American will have 754 in Dallas and 612 in Charlotte .
The large hubs mean that all three airports were among the world’s seven busiest by passenger count in 2021, with travel slowed globally and particularly in China. Atlanta was first with 75 million passengers, Dallas was second with 63 million passengers and Charlotte was sixth with 43 million.