Aviation watchdog JonNYC leaks that American Airlines is expected to add flights to Porto, Portugal. Clearly any such flight for American would be from Philadelphia. United flies the route from Newark, and Delta is launching it from New York JFK. American wouldn’t take this head-on from the New York area, with less connectivity than United and Delta have. They’d do it from their primary transatlantic connecting gateway, Philadelphia.
And, yes, aside from the obvious (PHL,) another exceedingly UNobvious NE airport is attached (very loosely) to the rumor.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 26, 2025
Here’s what’s uniquely surprising. Apparently there’s some consideration of launching from another airport in the Northeast as well. That piece doesn’t make sense to me.
Philadelphia – Porto is shorter than New York – London. It would presumably be operated by American’s new narrowbody transatlantic Airbus A321XLR – a plane purchased for that purpose.
Surely, if it were to come to fruition, it would be summer seasonal.
American flies Philadelphia – Lisbon, but that’s not a place where they can expand. Lisbon isn’t just a congested airport, it’s a policy flight. JetBlue lashed out this year over its slot requests being rejected since 2023, and complained that U.S. airlines were being denied access. Porto would be a way of expanding to Lisbon without waiting for a new airport a decade from now.
The U.S. market generated 2.3 million travelers to Portugal in 2024, surprisingly the number 3 source of visitors for the country. About 9.4% of visitors to the country in total were to Porto. While American’s probably skewed more heavily to Lisbon, 9.4% of the total would imply about 215,000 U.S. travelers to Porto in 2024. That’s more likely to be achieved as non-stops between the U.S. and Porto grow.
Porto is a compact, walkable city with the Ribeira riverfront, steep streets, viewpoints, and tiled churches. Port wine and cellar tastings are easy to do on foot, rather than as an all-day excursion. Seafood, northern Portuguese comfort food, and francesinha make it a great foodie stop. And it’s somewhat cheaper to visit than Western Europe capitals.
AA can’t get more slots at LIS so it stands to reason OPO will likely be its next Portugal destination and more than likely from PHL, not BOS and not JFK, and not before 2027.
The Boston area and nearby RI both have high numbers of locals who regularly go to NYC to fly to Porto and other Portuguese airports to visit friends and family… I personally know a few. These same people would also never consider going to PHL, the connections just aren’t very good for the $$ vs a drive or train ride to NYC.
So for AA to be competitive, they need direct flights… Connectivity in Porto, naw, not needed, similarly in Boston, AA isn’t great unless LEAVING the USA unless you want to go to a AA hub. Sure AA is a leader in Boston, but regionally you can’t go anywhere unless you go to PHL because Boston caters to long distance flight, but not regional… Interestingly enough DELTA has done similarly with DETROIT…. Both carriers have used Boston to connect to Europe and larger American cities, but FAIL to connect anybody to any regional airports in the area……
Any chance American will try Miami to Lisbon if it gets Lisbon slots? Wouldn’t be surprised to see AA try any of PHL-CMN, JFK-RAK, MIA-RAK