WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2020) American Airlines temporarily halted service to 15 cities in the United States due to low demand and the expiration of requirements in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act for air carriers to receive subsidies to keep flying during the pandemic, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.
"This is the first step as American continues to evaluate its network and plans for additional schedule changes in the coming weeks," the release said. "These station suspensions will be effective Oct[ober] 7. For now, these changes are only in place for the October schedule period, which runs through Nov[ember] 3."
The $2.2 trillion CARES Act provided $25 billion to support payrolls of US passenger airlines to help pay staff through the end of September.
The airline said it will re-assess plans for these and other markets as the Trump administration negotiates an extension of the Payroll Support Program with House Democrats.
Those talks remain deadlocked, with the Trump administration setting a $1 trillion ceiling and House Democrats unwilling to spend less than $2 trillion.
The list of canceled routes affected smaller US cities, such as New Haven in the state of Connecticut, Del Rio in Texas and Roswell in New Mexico.
