American Airlines held its internal leadership conference “Journey ’26” last week, where senior management lays out priorities. It was focused on customer experience, network strategy, modernization and resilience. It’s similar to United’s “Summit” and Delta’s “Connections.” I’ve attended a couple of these in the past as a guest.
At the event, the airline had a ‘vote on our next destination’ event with jelly beans and it’s interesting the destinations that were highlighted: Seville, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Bordeaux, France; Casablanca, Morocco; Shannon, Ireland; Mallorca, Spain; Cape Town, South Africa; Vienna, Austria; Brussels, Belgium; Cordoba, Argentina.
An awesome day was had!.. pic.twitter.com/9dkq6RkbwZ
— Andy Monks ✈️ (@AndythePandy_) February 3, 2026
- Voting for destinations is hardly new. Delta did it with SkyMiles members in the fall.
- Isn’t it a little crazy that American Airlines doesn’t currently serve Vienna, Brussels, or Shannon?
- I would absolutely love to see Mallorca. Connecting there can be pretty brutal, so an American Airlines non-stop would be something I’d absolutely love to see.
- American was supposed to launch Casablanca, it was announced before the pandemic but never happened. Royal Air Maroc joined oneworld and they expected some local connectivity.
- The airline’s head of network planning has in the past noted the dearth of business travel between the continents though he did say a couple of years ago that they were looking at some destinations in Africa.
- Cape Town seems like a stretch without a local partner. It’s one-way demand, and competitors have it covered. It’s a lot of aircraft to dedicate to the route, which hasn’t been American’s style.
Last week they announced Porto. So with United and Delta adding secondary Europe with a leisure focus American is looking there, too.
Porto won’t be until summer 2027. If I were looking at 2027 adds I’d be looking to seasonal Europe as the focus. American could surprise me but long haul Africa (or Asia Pacific, other than Australia) seems a long shot for them.
Vienna is incredible. It’s hardly secondary Europe though – just a hole in the network map. I’ve been attached to it since Richard Linklater’s 1995 classic Before Sunrise where young American Ethan Hawke is traveling Europe and meets Frenchwoman Julie Delpy on a train. They disembark together in Vienna and spend the night talking, walking the city, and falling in love.
At the end of the film they don’t exchange numbers. Instead they plan to meet up again in Europe in six months, and the film ends leaving viewers wondering whether they actually do (a question that’s answered 9 years later in the outstanding Before Sunset).
The Airbus A321XLR should make Shannon pretty easy. Vienna may be more of a stretch for them to add with a 787. Let’s see how long we have to wonder before getting a next new summer Europe on American Airlines.
After COVID had the opportunity to fly to Europe a few times and was very disappointed as an American Airlines Status traveler to see how few European cities AA flew non stop, if at all. I live in a major metro area– British Airways flights had high taxes so the miles ticket wasn’t as valuable when booking an AA flight – Glad Royal Air Maroc partners with American Hope to get to Morocco soon-
We have been looking at VIE but the prices are outrageous. Even Star alliance prices are outrageous. Flying to Budapest and then take it a train to Vienna does not work
I hope they pull it off. The a321XLR was made-for TATL like East Coast-US (think, BOS, JFK, PHL, MIA even) nonstop to CMN (all under 4,000 nm, even with winter headwinds, fuel reserves, full loads, etc.) Iberia already uses an XLR for MAD-IAD, so, this totally can be done. Whether there’s a market for this (visiting Casablanca over, say, Marrakech) is a different story. Since RAM already flies 787s to JFK, IAD, MIA (soon BOS, maybe LAX), it would seem like PHL-CMN makes most since.
I love CPT, so, more options on US-CPT would be amazing, but, from where? JFK, PHL, MIA? Any of these would be awesome. I still remember the days when SAA flew 744 on CPT-MIA.
“Isn’t it a little crazy that American Airlines doesn’t currently serve Vienna, Brussels, or Shannon?”
Not when they have no excess equipment to fly there.
VIE doesn’t shock me – AA isn’t big in Germany/Austria and UA is the only US-based passenger airline that flies there, likely because of the Star hub which locks up most VIE-based business travel. Delta doesn’t fly there either, so it’s not like AA is the odd one out here.
It’s a lovely city, but I don’t think it is on many Americans’ radars (partially bc of price, like Scandinavia, not sure if there is another reason not a ton of people go there).
No US carrier serves VIE; UA leaves it to its joint venture partner.
Like BRU, VIE is a fairly small market with a Star alliance JV partner that serves nearly all of the US demand.
All of the US to S. Africa frequencies are currently used by DL and UA; more were added a couple years ago but the US and S. Africa don’t have great relations right now.
Whether the A321XLR will have viable year round economics including in the winter when TATL air fares crater remains to be seen but it is the best hope AA has of adding a few more dots to its route map.
No US airline flies to VIE, which is a fairly niche market, and owned by *A.
BRU is a money pit for all but UA, because of *A and it flows traffic to and from SN’s Africa network.
DL cut JFK-BRU and reduced ATL-BRU to 4 x weekly.
COR would be a return, as AA flew MIA-COR pre-pandemic on a 763 and it flopped.
Some of the other routes make sense.
Having read the reviews of AA’s 321XLR with cramped seats and one lav for Business class+, I think, Prem. Econ, I think I’ll pass….
@Tim Dunn — South Africa remains a destination for American tourists (wine in Cape Town, safaris in Kruger or the Kalahari). You already know that DL and UA have cornered that market, unless folks wanna connect in Europe or ME, which isn’t ideal. Additional competition by AA would be a ‘win’ for them and consumers, and it might even help with ‘relations,’ which… Tim, seriously, you don’t need Fox on 24/7, it’s practically white nationalist propaganda… (‘but, but, the farmers!’) *facepalm*