NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
American Airlines and United Airlines are cutting their flight schedules for Sept. 11 this year due to a drop in demand from customers nervous about the anniversary of last year's terrorist attack.
Neither carrier would reveal the extent of the cutback or the drop in passenger demand on that day, which falls on a Wednesday this year. Other major U.S. carriers did not return phone calls seeking comments on their plans.
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| American and United airlines say they are cutting back their Sept. 11 flight schedules due to reduced demand to fly that day. |
"It's going to be mostly reduced frequency out of our hubs, not huge numbers," United spokesman Chris Brathwaite said. He said United would not offer any discounts to attract passengers to fly that day.
Brathwaite did say that the change affects United's domestic schedule, not it's international flights. American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke wouldn't even comment on that detail at his carrier.
"We are seeing a decline in the number of reservations on Sept. 11, as expected. We've adjusted our schedule accordingly," he said.
American now is operating about 2,972 flights a day, while United operates just under 2,000. Both airlines, along with most major carriers, cut their schedules by more than 10 percent in the wake of the attack due to a sharp decline in demand for air travel.
That demand has yet to return for the most part. American's parent, AMR Corp. (AMR: down $0.23 to $11.21, Research, Estimates), reported that miles flown by paying passengers in the second quarter totaled 31.4 billion, off 10 percent from a year earlier, although the first 10 days of the earlier period did not include results from TWA, which was acquired at that time.
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United parent UAL Corp. (UAL: down $0.36 to $5.89, Research, Estimates) reported that miles flown by paying passengers dropped to 27.9 billion in the quarter, off 14.7 percent from year-earlier results.
American, the world's largest airline, and United, the world's No. 2 carrier, are the two airlines that lost planes to hijackers that day.
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