18 Million People Will Visit American Airlines Airport Lounges This Year, Up 80% From A Decade Ago

American expects 18 million lounge visits in 2026 up 80% from 10 million in 2016. Passenger traffic is up just 12.1%. American and its regional partners boarded 150.7 million passengers in the first nine months of 2016. For the first nine months of 2026, it was 169 million. Customers have more ways to get into lounges, better reasons to visit, and reasons to spend more time once they’re there. 2016 Was A Very Different Lounge Time American already had Flagship lounges in 2016, geared toward international first class customers and qualifying elites. But the business class Flagship lounge product hadn’t launched yet. Those business class passengers already had Admirals Club access. Moving them into a better lounge didn’t create mean more people in lounges, but it did give more people a reason to actually use what they had access to. In 2021 American added Admirals Club access on more short international trips for premium cabin passengers and mid-tier elites. The airline also used to spend money making its lounges less nice. Their refurbishment program a decade ago made spaces worse with their ‘modern hospital’ aesthetic perhaps best exemplified by the DFW A concourse club. The newer design, which debuted at Washington National’s E concourse in 2022, is gorgeous. Wood, warmer lighting, a fireplace, and an overall welcoming environment. Denver and Newark followed in 2023, and Philadelphia’s new lounges opened in 2025. I’ve also covered how much more American is putting into lounge food. The buffet isn’t great but it’s real food, not cheese cubes and we don’t have to get excited simply for Mastercard funding guacamole stations. Better lounges change behavior. More people come. They stay longer and eat. That means more seating is needed – both for higher passenger volume and because of less turnover. American is also de-banking hubs for better reliability, and that means longer connecting time that encourages lounge use. The customers themselves have changed, too. Premium leisure and work flexibility (even returned to office companies often don’t have everyone in, every day anymore) both drive lounge crowding. Families traveling together come to the airport earlier that solo business travelers. And the vagaries of security wait times encourage it, too. Indeed, leisure customers in premium cabin have more than double compared to pre-pandemic. And while the American Airlines premium card portfolio is smaller than I would have imagined, premium cards generally have exploded. The Banks Have Changed What A Lounge Is For When American Express opened its first lounge in Las Vegas in 2013, the design was so much nicer than the airline clubs. The food was so much better, too. (It was also better than what those lounges offer today.) When they opened DFW, it even included a spa. The brisket was pretty good! American Airlines fought their opening at DFW at the time, not wanting the competition. But people, it turns out, schedule their connections around better lounges and it’s likely brought American many new customers. Yet American’s own lounge throughput has grown markedly even as banks have provided nice lounges, too. And American, like the other airlines, has improved its own offering to compete. American Express, ironically, was as much making a defensive play as anything else. They lost access for their cadmembers to Continenntal lounges with the United merger, and to both American Airlines and US Airways lounges when those two airlines merged (as each merged carrier entered into an exclusive credit card agreement that covered lounge access). It turns out that these lounges do drive business. American now sells its Citi Executive card with a $695 annual fee and Admirals Club membership, while full memberships bought directly from the airline can run as high as $1,400. They far prefer you to have a credit card relationship than just to buy access. Banks have become such important lounge operators that Virginia changed its alcohol laws to accommodate them. I covered emergency legislation in 2023 extending mixed beverage carrier licenses to financial institutions and qualifying lounge operators working with them. That allowed the bank lounges to serve alcohol. Capital One Landing’s José Andrés food is a reason to choose a card, and to allow time for a meal before your flight, rather than something to tolerate because it’s included. American has moved from closing clubs to promising nearly one new, renovated or expanded lounge experience per month on average over the next two to three years. Topics on this page