Though you should still be determining plans for Labor Day weekend, American Airways is already fascinated with the place you will need to fly subsequent summer season.
The Fort Value-based service simply introduced a big long-haul growth for summer season 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: Essentially the most thrilling new airline routes of 2025 (up to now)
You may discover all the main points beneath.
1 new transatlantic flight
American’s solely true “new” flight will join the Dallas-Fort Value metro space with Athens, Greece, starting Might 21, 2026. The airline will deploy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this every day flight.
By subsequent summer season, American will fly to Athens Worldwide Airport (ATH) from a whopping 5 U.S. gateways, probably the most of any U.S. airline.
It will be attention-grabbing 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 Value Worldwide Airport (DFW) is American’s greatest hub, so it is potential that this new route may truly take some connecting site visitors away from a few of its different flights to Athens.
However, Greece continues to be a well-liked vacation spot for Individuals, so the airline doubtless 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 Might 21 to Aug. 3
- DFW to Zurich Airport (ZRH), service working from Might 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 season seasonal service beginning Might 21
- PHL to Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), summer season seasonal service beginning Might 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 season.
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 not too long ago launched flight from MIA to Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), which took off earlier this summer season.
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 companies.
Whereas frequent American flyers would possibly’ve most popular extra actually “new” routes for subsequent summer season, Brian Znotins, the airline’s community chief, instructed me that “we’re attempting to not examine to 2019 anymore… We do not work by a listing of what we tried in 2019, and people aren’t going to be the primary issues we attempt in 2026.”
As a substitute, he appears to be like towards market demand, and that is pointing to Budapest and Prague. “We have a look at our net 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 revel 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 potential on condition that we have but to study the place the 2 different “Massive Three” airways intend to increase subsequent summer season.
Upgauging to Tokyo
American additionally has some information for transpacific flyers: the airline will upgauge its service to Tokyo subsequent summer season with extra premium plane. This consists of 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 season 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 gives 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 season are actually 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 a substitute would supply a far larger catchment space to fill these nonstops.)
However, I would contend that connecting in Philly is way extra handy than connecting in London or Madrid, which is what American flyers presently must do to be able 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 in step with that,” he mentioned.
All instructed, American’s summer season 2026 schedule feels a bit extra of the identical. This is not a significant growth like we have seen over time from United (and to a lesser extent, Delta). Fairly, this growth looks like American is taking the protected guess — including a bit extra aptitude to its community with out dipping its toes too far throughout the Atlantic into extra obscure territory, which is what I would anticipate 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 believe we’ll have much more new routes and new locations to speak about centered on that airplane,” Znotins mentioned.
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