Regardless that you should still be determining plans for Labor Day weekend, American Airways is already serious about the place you will need to fly subsequent summer time.
The Fort Price-based service simply introduced a big long-haul enlargement for summer time 2026 that features what the airline says are six “new” routes.
The reality is that simply one of many six routes is technically “new” — however however, it is thrilling to see American flex its long-haul muscle past tried-and-true transatlantic locations like London and Paris.
Updating the map: Probably the most thrilling new airline routes of 2025 (to date)
You will discover all the small print beneath.
1 new transatlantic flight
American’s solely true “new” flight will join the Dallas-Fort Price metro space with Athens, Greece, starting Could 21, 2026. The airline will deploy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this every day flight.
By subsequent summer time, American will fly to Athens Worldwide Airport (ATH) from a whopping 5 U.S. gateways, probably the most of any U.S. airline.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how this new route performs, particularly since it is the longest and furthest west of any of the opposite American gateway cities to Athens, which embody Charlotte, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. However Dallas Fort Price Worldwide Airport (DFW) is American’s largest hub, so it is doable that this new route may really take some connecting site visitors away from a few of its different flights to Athens.
Nonetheless, Greece continues to be a well-liked vacation spot for Individuals, so the airline probably is betting that it will not have an excessive amount of bother filling up the 234 seats it will fly.
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5 resuming long-haul routes
The opposite 5 routes that American introduced on Thursday have all been operated previously. They embody:
- DFW to Ezeiza Worldwide Airport (EZE) in Buenos Aires, service working from Could 21 to Aug. 3
- DFW to Zurich Airport (ZRH), service working from Could 21 to Aug. 4
- Miami Worldwide Airport (MIA) to Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), year-round service beginning March 29
- Philadelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL) to Budapest Ferenc Liszt Worldwide Airport (BUD), summer time seasonal service beginning Could 21
- PHL to Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), summer time seasonal service beginning Could 21
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The 2 flights from DFW are designed for “world soccer followers,” based on American. Studying between the traces, the airline is focusing on followers headed to the FIFA World Cup, of which 9 video games will happen in Dallas subsequent summer time.
American final flew from DFW to ZRH in 2007, and it is constantly flown from DFW to EZE within the winter.
In the meantime, the airline final flew from MIA to MXP in 2020, nevertheless it dropped the flight on the outset of the pandemic. This service enhances the lately launched flight from MIA to Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), which took off earlier this summer time.
Lastly, the BUD and PRG routes have been final flown within the 2018 and 2019 winter seasons. They have not returned because the pandemic, and this time the airline will deploy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on each providers.
Whereas frequent American flyers may’ve most popular extra actually “new” routes for subsequent summer time, Brian Znotins, the airline’s community chief, informed me that “we’re making an attempt to not evaluate to 2019 anymore… We do not work by means of an inventory of what we tried in 2019, and people will not be going to be the primary issues we attempt in 2026.”
As a substitute, he seems towards market demand, and that is pointing to Budapest and Prague. “We have a look at our internet searches on aa.com and on the prime 5 locations [that people search to but] that we do not fly to, and folks get on aa.com and seek for Prague and Budapest,” he defined.
American will compete with Delta’s nonstop service from John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to PRG, and luxuriate in a monopoly on U.S. service to Budapest. The final service on the route was LOT Polish Airways, which left the market in 2022.
After all, that assumes Delta or United will not match American’s plan to fly to Budapest — one thing solely doable on condition that we have but to be taught the place the 2 different “Massive Three” airways intend to develop subsequent summer time.
Upgauging to Tokyo
American additionally has some information for transpacific flyers: the airline will upgauge its service to Tokyo subsequent summer time with extra premium plane. This contains flying a Boeing 777-300ER on the route from Dallas to Tokyo, and a Boeing 777-200 from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
Each of those flights are presently operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, and in comparison with summer time 2025, American will enhance premium seating capability on these routes by greater than 45%.
Word that the airline is not planning to fly its new premium-heavy Boeing 787-9P variant on these routes, which affords the best density of premium seats in American’s long-haul fleet. That may primarily be deployed to London on the outset, based on Znotins.
Backside line
American’s upcoming long-haul routes for subsequent summer time are definitely thrilling, particularly since they embody some secondary European cities like Budapest and Prague.
Giving vacationers extra nonstop choices is nice, however since these two routes will likely be operated from PHL, loads of flyers will nonetheless want to attach in Philly to get onto these flights. (Working the routes from New York as an alternative would provide a far greater catchment space to fill these nonstops.)
Nonetheless, I might contend that connecting in Philly is much extra handy than connecting in London or Madrid, which is what American flyers presently must do with a purpose to get to those locations.
Znotins even spelled this out as a part of the airline’s community technique because it pertains to the transatlantic three way partnership it participates in with British Airways, Iberia and Finnair. “Our position is to serve secondary Europe on behalf of the three way partnership, and their position is to serve secondary U.S. And that is proper consistent with that,” he mentioned.
All informed, American’s summer time 2026 schedule feels a bit extra of the identical. This is not a significant enlargement like we have seen through the years from United (and to a lesser extent, Delta). Moderately, this enlargement seems like American is taking the protected guess — including a little bit extra aptitude to its community with out dipping its toes too far throughout the Atlantic into extra obscure territory, which is what I might count on United and Delta to in all probability do once more subsequent 12 months.
However the period of American including new long-haul routes to extra area of interest European cities is not too far off within the distance. That is thanks to approaching deliveries of Airbus A321XLR jets, the primary of which is predicted to fly for American later this 12 months.
“We anticipate having an enormous A321XLR progress push in 2027. And so, this time subsequent 12 months, I feel we’ll have much more new routes and new locations to speak about targeted on that airplane,” Znotins mentioned.
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