American Airlines has announced it will fundamentally change the way it does business at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) by investing millions of dollars to provide smoother, seamless airport experiences; greater certainty to schedules and connections; improved resilience when weather or other disruptions hit and a full restructuring of DFW today for the customer journeys of tomorrow.
Currently serving nearly 700,000 passengers a day; American Airlines has stated that more customers and bags travel connect and travel through DFW every day than any other airport in its network – with over 30% of all daily connecting customers and daily connecting checked bags travelling through the airline’s hometown airport.
From April 2026; American Airline’s DFW operation will expand to a 13-bank structure, providing greater certainty to the airline’s average 100,000 peak daily customers travelling on over 930 average peak DFW daily departing flights.
Jim Moses, Senior Vice President of DFW Operations, said:As the operating environment and our customers’ expectations have evolved in the last 10 years, our approach at our largest and most impactful hub must also evolve.
We’re making this significant shift while maintaining the same breadth, depth and schedule quality our customers expect and depend on. That means good things for American’s customers, our team members and just about everyone who depends on the airline.
The structural change is expected to offer customers an improved number of early-morning departure times when compared to those previously available in 2025. Specifically; more departure options will be available in desired time windows and fewer early morning departures to DFW.
American has also stated it will invest in block flight time for flights both to and from DFW, as well as across the airline’s network, ensuring more on-time departures, on-time arrivals and fewer delays:
- Improved customer connection times: Whilst customers will still be able to book tight connections; schedule enhancements will aim to provide more options for a stress-free experience by reducing the concentration of very short connection times
- More connection opportunities: The new bank structure will aim to keep nearly all existing connection opportunities in addition to creating new opportunities across the airline’s most-used airport
- Airspace efficiency: By reflowing American’s DFW schedule, the airline is looking to help make the airspace around the DFW metroplex more efficient, reducing air traffic delays and improving on-time departures and arrivals for customers
As it looks to spread out its DFW flight schedule across the day; the operator also intends to spread out customer volume, including everything from local customers arriving in parking garages, checking in at lobbies and clearing security to connecting customers making their way through American’s terminals to their next flights.
Changes will include the modernisation of its facilities and airport terminals, including the addition of nine incremental gates at Terminal A and C via the construction of new piers; an expansion of its footprint with the new Terminal F; streamlining the overall security experience and reimagining traffic flow.
Finally, a new schedule structure aims to provide greater resilience and less adverse impact as a result of bad weather.
Jim Moses said:Our investment in operational resilience extends beyond our DFW schedule.
We know the negative impact flight diversions have on our customers. They’re also incredibly disruptive to the broader airline, especially as they create congestion at airports which often limits our ability to get aircraft to a gate and importantly, deplane customers.
