American Airlines has added 5 routes to its summer 2025 Europe schedule.
- Charlotte – Athens with a daily Boeing 777-200 starting June 5.
- Chicago – Madrid with a daily Boeing 787-8 starting March 30.
- Philadelphia – Milan with a daily Boeing 787-8 starting May 23.
- Philadelphia – Edinburgh with a daily Boeing 787-8 starting May 23.
- Miami – Rome with a daily Boeing 777-200. This doesn’t start until July 5.
American Airlines Boeing 787-8
Chicago seeing more international makes sense. American had killed its entire transoceanic operation there other than London Heathrow – and Madrid is joint venture partner Iberia’s hub.
American’s approach to international flying, broadly, is to fly to their close partner hubs and to operate seasonally to other destinations.
Summer to Italy is easy (well, not the old experiment they tried to Bologna but certainly Rome). And Philadelphia is their transatlantic connecting hub. Philadelphia – Edinburgh is a route that last operated in 2019 – it didn’t return post-pandemic – but it stretches back to US Airways days there.
I thought we would see Charlotte – Barcelona, honestly. Chicago – Athens is surprising but the Greek islands are doing very well. It’s not that people will stay in Athens but this is a way to get to Greece. This route got tipped early when the Charlotte airport followed Athens on Instagram.
Notably, New York JFK doesn’t seem any new love from American for summer 2025. With the loss of their JetBlue partnership, they continue to struggle with a strategy for their New York hub and competition in the New York market was ironically but predictably diminished by the DOJ’s anti-trust suit..
American is extending the season for Dallas – Barcelona; Miami – Paris; Philadelphia – Athens and Philadelphia – Naples. They’ve also announced plans to upgauge Dallas to Tokyo Haneda and Narita, Dallas – Shanghai and Los Angeles to Haneda.
American Airlines Business Class
In total the airline “will offer more than 70 daily departures to more than 20 trans-Atlantic destinations in summer 2025” including the return of Copenhagen, Naples, and Nice.
Good for folks on the East,
For the West Coast folks, flying a crap narrowbody from PHL to LAX /SFO etc makes for a miserable end to a trip.
Their product is the network they say. We agree on that, it’s just they think it’s a good network.
Gary, you’ve stated a few times that AA killed its entire transoceanic operation out of ORD except for LHR. While that’s true in winter, it’s not true in summer. Summer 2024 saw CDG, FCO, BCN, ATH, VCE, DUB.
Article also mentions “Chicago-Athens” is surprising. I think you meant CLT-ATH, since that’s the add for Summer 2025.
Last lax to phl I was in a few months ago was a very comfie wide body.
When are they bookable?
Beachfan, Isn’t it almost the same issue for easterners flying to Asia, HI, S. Pacific?
BA and Iberia need to upgrade their business proposition otherwise American premium passengers are going to be very disappointed with the service the experience once they get to Europe. All European carriers J short haul service is barley better than low cost airlines. This is not just a problem with One World but all European carriers.
Seems like pretty basic moves but smart, or at least not dumb, will suffice. Not like AA has a history since the merger of making inspired choices. More simple but agreeable decisions like this could help the airline.
Greece and Italy (and most of central and Southern Europe) are too damn hot in the summertime for me. But perhaps there will be shoulder season availability.
Once again, the west coast is on the losing end of the adds.
Does anyone know how AA’s 70+ flights across the Atlantic compares to the UA and DL flight counts?
Athens and Rome are both incredible cities with rich histories and vibrant cultures, so these new routes will surely be popular. It’s always thrilling to see airlines expanding their offerings and mani and pedi nails making travel more accessible. I’m looking forward to planning trips to these amazing destinations
@Beachfan, I fly PHL-LAX regularly and have no problem with the 321NEO. I do fly FC. I have friends who fly Prem. Econ. and they have no problem either.
The interior in Econ is lousy, but there’s no discernible difference to me on United and Southwest for me stinks. Maybe with reserved seats it will improve. I haven’t flown Delta in years and can’t say anything about them one way or the other.
I’m looking forward to AA’s 321XLR planes for European flights once they finally come on line. I’ll be flying in their new BC suites. (Why is it that the media keeps harping about 787 and 777X delays and 787 and MAX problems but ignore 321XLR delays and recent A350 problems?)
They had to do SOMETHING with the planes they pulled from TLV!
Not to mention the PHL-CPH route started June 6
https://wacphila.org/americans-new-copenhagen-route-out-of-phl/
JFK routes to Europe suck for much of the country as AA likes to hub you into LGA and connect via JFK, wasting half a day in NYC for no reason.