Fort Worth-based American Airlines has axed three destinations from its route map this calendar year, with the airline fully withdrawing from one domestic destination and two international gateways. The airline canceled its services to Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) in March, two months before all flights to Santa Maria (SMX) were terminated.

Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) in Mexico has also seen no American flights since August. American ultimately cut all three of these services due to a combination of severe regional geopolitical instability (services to Doha), as well as poor financial performance on the shorter services to Tijuana and Santa Maria. Data for this article has been sourced from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

American Airlines Has Cut All Flights To Qatar

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In March, Doha was removed from the American route map, when the carrier cited geopolitical instability as a key driver, while at the same time opting for its alliance partner Qatar Airways to take up serving the route from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). American operated the route with the Boeing 787-9.

American had attempted to leverage its Philadelphia hub as the springboard for its Doha operations, but due to ongoing tension in the Middle East, this ultimately led to the route’s demise. Qatar Airways now remains the only operator flying between Qatar and the US nonstop.

Santa Maria Sees No Legacy Carriers

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When the Oneworld airline axed its nonstop services from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to both Santa Maria and Tijuana, this marked the airline’s full exit from both of these airports. Santa Maria, a smaller regional airport in California, was served by the airline’s Bombardier CRJ900 through an agreement with SkyWest.

The only airline remaining at Santa Maria is that of Allegiant Air, which operates regular flights to and from Las Vegas (LAS). American’s exit from the airport in Santa Barbara County leaves the airline with no legacy carrier. American operated the route to Santa Maria, primarily to grow its hub-and-spoke network from its Arizona base.

Operated up to twice daily, the carrier provided a total of 152 seats in each direction (76 seats per flight), and operated for less than a year between October 15, 2025, and May 7, 2026. The airline discontinued the route due to low demand.

American’s Exit From Tijuana Leaves No US Network From The Mexican Airport

Credit: Robin Guess | Shutterstock

In early 2024, American launched nonstop flights from Phoenix to Tijuana. This marked the first and only US operator and route to be served from the Mexican airport. Tijuana Airport, and the city itself, straddles the US-Mexico border, neighboring San Diego. In August, American terminated the route to Tijuana, citing low demand. This then allowed the airline to reallocate the aircraft to higher-demand routes.

American added the route to Tijuana as part of an attempt to tap into strong trade between the two regions, increasing tourism connections and linking passengers into the extensive domestic network from the Mexican airport. Tijuana is one of Mexico’s busiest airports and has a growing list of domestic operators providing low-cost or full-service operations across the country, which is home to more than 133 million people.

Each of these three destinations faced unique challenges that led to them being cut. Their exit resulted in three airports no longer having American flights, with two of the routes now left uncontested.