American Airlines Makes Big Long-Haul Additions For Next Summer Season

American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has announced a comprehensive expansion plan for the upcoming summer season. The airline will introduce new routes, extend existing seasonal routes, and implement aircraft upgrades to enhance its offerings.

One notable addition is the establishment of daily flights from Philadelphia to Prague and Budapest. Both destinations will be served on Boeing 787-8 aircraft, marking the first direct flights from the United States to Budapest. This expansion is particularly noteworthy given that until this announcement, American Airlines had not offered any unique European destinations, unlike other U.S. carriers, primarily due to its relatively low risk tolerance. This announcement represents a significant departure from the carrier’s previous strategy.

In addition to these new routes, American Airlines has announced year-round service from Miami to Milan, also operated by Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Furthermore, the airline has expanded its seasonal service from its hub, Dallas-Fort Worth, by introducing two new seasonal routes and extending a seasonal service to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a 787-8 aircraft. These new summer routes include Dallas to Athens on a 787-8, and Dallas to Zurich on a 777-200 aircraft. This expansion will bring the total number of daily offered routes to Italy and Greece to 18 next summer.

American Airlines’ continued success in expanding flights to Athens and Italy is a testament to its strategic approach. The airline has consistently achieved high expansion rates year after year, driven by the exceptional performance of its flights to these destinations. Additionally, the airline’s growth at Tokyo Haneda has been facilitated by its partnership with Japan Airlines, headquartered in Tokyo. American Airlines has assigned its Boeing 777-300 aircraft from Dallas to Tokyo, an aircraft that has only served premium routes. This aircraft operates to international destinations such as London, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Sydney. In addition to its expansion to Tokyo from Dallas, American Airlines will now offer twice-daily 777-200 service to Tokyo from Los Angeles. Both services will commence at the end of March 2026. Tokyo has emerged as a premium destination for American Airlines in recent years. Previously, the airline assigned 787-8 aircraft to these routes, which offered less than half the business class capacity of the 777-300, indicating significant premium growth for the airline.

This premium approach is a first from American, and was surprising, given that there is no expansion from key hubs, such as Chicago O’Hare and New York JFK, two of the best hubs for international travel from the United States. I was speculating expansion from Chicago in particular, due to their strategic plan, which dictated that Chicago expansions were far overdue. I guessed that there would be a new service from Chicago to either Tokyo, Zurich, São Paulo, or Germany, given that their competitor, United, flies all of those routes, and the airline has historically been successful at those destinations. It is one of the airline’s disadvantages competitively to United, as much less service is offered from their Chicago hub. But overall, these are great expansions with hopefully more to come. It’s great to see American be the first carrier to offer Budapest service to the U.S. Hopefully, this can allow for the airline to boost its risk tolerance even more, and we can see some new and unique opportunities, just like what United is doing in Asia.