American says 'so long' to in-flight gate announcements

American Airlines has just scrapped one of its longtime in-flight features – and there’s a good chance you won’t even notice.

As of May 17, the Fort Worth-based carrier is no longer making gate announcements near the end of each flight, mainly because its increasingly connected passengers don’t need a crew member to tell them that their connecting flight to Buffalo leaves from gate A15.

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“There wasn’t anything magical about this week,” American Airlines spokesperson Josh Freed told Paste BN about the airline’s decision to end the announcements. “The balance had just shifted and it felt like that information wasn’t helping anyone anymore.”

Freed said that customers already have a number of ways to get gate numbers and connecting flight details, whether it’s from their own phones, in-flight entertainment screens or departure boards in the airport. “For some customers, [the announcements] felt like an interruption to the tail end of the flight,” Freed said. “And we’re happy to stop interrupting them.”

American's change was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Delta and United both did away with their own in-flight gate announcements several years ago, citing both technology enhancements and customer feedback as factors in their decisions. But that doesn’t mean that the airlines have stopped looking out for passengers who will have to sprint through two terminals in order to make their next flights.

“Our flight attendants have a Guest Service tool on their mobile devices, which allows them to identify close connections on board so they can proactively reach out to those customers and tell them exactly where they need to go, and how long of a connection they have,” Delta spokesperson Catherine Sirna said.

At American, Freed said the airline will continue to have clipboard-carrying gate agents at its jetways to provide connecting flight information. “You almost trip over them when you get off the plane,” he said. “But they exist to help passengers get where they’re going to go.”