American Airlines plans to suspend flights to 15 cities, including New Haven, in October, when a federal ban against service cuts carriers agreed to as part of a multibillion-dollar coronavirus aid package expires.

The change, announced Thursday, means nine airports will lose their only airline service.

The other airports are Del Rio, Texas; Dubuque and Sioux City, Iowa; Florence, S.C.; Huntington, W.Va.; Joplin, Mo.; Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Mich.; Lake Charles, La.; New Windsor, N.Y.; Rosewell, N.M.; Springfield, Ill.; Stillwater, Okla. and Williamsport, Pa.

Bill Hopper, director of the Pitt-Greenville Airport Authority in North Carolina, said American called him Wednesday night to share news.

"It's unfortunate," Hopper said. "We understand there's some pretty significant challenges that the airlines are facing and we're going to work tirelessly with the local community and American Airlines to ensure that we can get the service back up as soon as possible."

In a statement, the carrier said it was dropping service to the airports between Oct. 7 and Nov. 3, citing "low demand and the expiration of the air service requirements associated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act."

The airline said the cuts and other service changes will be under review as Congress debates whether to extend financial aid to the aviation industry through next March. The airline said it will publish its November schedule late next month.

"This is the first step as American continues to evaluate its network and plans for additional schedule changes in the coming weeks," American said.

This spring, lawmakers passed a $50 billion package designed to keep the airlines afloat as the coronavirus ravaged the business, driving down passenger volumes by as much as 95 percent. The money came with provisions designed to protect workers and smaller communities, but as the expiration of those protections approaches airline executives have said they expect their operations to be smaller.

Demand for air travel began to rebound in late April as the virus' spread slowed and growth continued steadily until mid-July. But growth has all but stalled since then and airline leaders now say they expect the ultimate recovery to be prolonged, perhaps taking several years.

On Wednesday, just 587,000 people passed through Transportation Security Administration screening checkpoints, compared with 2.3 million last year.

Hopper, whose airport serves businesses, a major medical complex and a college in eastern North Carolina, said he had witnessed the slowing of the recovery.

"I think every airport in the country is keeping their eyes on what's happening in the industry and are trying to plan how best to address it," he said.

As part of the rescue package, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Transportation the power to require airlines to maintain pre-pandemic levels of service until March 2022. But the department chose only to exercise that power until Sept. 30 of this year, when a ban on furloughs and layoffs of airline employees also expires.

Unions representing pilots, flight attendants and other workers in the industry are urging Congress to extend the part of the rescue package that supports wages and benefits through March. Airlines have said that once the ban lifts on Oct. 1, they are prepared to layoff tens of thousands of workers.

"This really could hamstring the rebound of the industry and the growth of the economy," Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, said in a virtual town hall Thursday.

A majority of House members and 16 Senate Republicans have said they support extending the payroll protections, but negotiations over a broader coronavirus relief package have been stalled for weeks.

If lawmakers do act, it's not clear whether the Transportation Department would choose to also extend the prohibition on service cuts.

While the Transportation Department generally required airlines to maintain service, it granted some exceptions and in May allowed them to end services at some airports as long as those airports continued to be served by another carrier.

At a hearing in June, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he was already seeing cuts to service in the communities he represents and questioned whether flights would ever return.

Nicholas Calio, head of Airlines for America, a major trade group, sought to reassure him.

"If that demand comes back, I guarantee you you'll have the flights," Calio said.