American Airlines will figure it out, have no fear. It's a well-run company with a great culture among its employees. Full disclosure, it was an anchor client of my law firm before I retired, so I'm not able to claim being unbiased.

A post in April by George C1 resonated with me: "The SJU airport authority ran American Airlines and their inter island operation out of SJU. Prices have soared and customers have suffered. AA had 50 aircraft seating 64 people flying everywhere in the Caribbean from SJU. Probably less than 20% of that capacity has been replaced. The result was 100% predictable."

I saw the very same thing happen in St. Maarten years ago in the early 2000s; I was just starting to get a lot of work from AA and got to know a number of the gate agents at that airport. Even they were complaining about the steady increase in fees that the local government (largely populated by idiots who knew how to run nothing except their mouths) would just keep piling on, feeling like AA was a captive and would just "grin and bear it." Eventually, burdened by legacy costs that prevented it from competing with JetBlue (which had none as a start-up airline back then, in 1998), American ceded the Caribbean to that carrier - and with the severely lamentable consequences that George C1 accurately recites.

The far greater danger to the success of AA's venture are the actions that might be taken by a government that has to sustain a labor action that shuts down the airport for failing to pay raises that were acknowledged to be owed to the staff, but soon thereafter can readily find $250,000 to spend on a "non stop concert" (https://www.bvibeacon.com/non-stop-concert-to-celebrate-direct-flights/) that is purportedly to celebrate AA's return to this market! The irony is other-worldly, as is the fear and loathing it should cause all of us who want to see AA succeed.