American Airlines Adding Porto, Vienna And Reykjavik In 2027 Summer Expansion
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On the heels of United Airlines announcing its massive push into Europe, American Airlines has announced a few new city pairs and destinations, but nowhere on the scale of United’s.
On Wednesday, American dropped their own teasers across their social media channels, asking followers to guess their new routes based on various menu offerings. They have since followed up, unveiling their 2027 summer expansion plans as follows.
Vienna and Porto joining American’s network for the first time
American will add daily Airbus A321XLR flights to Porto (OPO), Portugal and Vienna (VIE), Austria from Philadelphia (PHL) starting March 28 and May 6 respectively. With American’s addition, they will exclusively serve the Austrian market out of Philly, with Austrian Airlines using widebodies to fly into nearby cities such as New York, Newark and Boston.
It’s the same for Porto as American will exclusively fly out of Philly, with the closest competition being TAP Portugal, United and Delta serving nearby major cities. Unlike Austrian, these competing carriers are also using a combination of narrowbodies such as Airbus A321LRs and Boeing 757s. United is the only widebody operator between Porto and Newark using as Boeing 767.
| Origin | Destination | Frequency | Start Date | Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia (PHL) | Porto (OPO) | Daily | March 28, 2027 | Airbus A321XLR |
| Philadelphia (PHL) | Vienna (VIE) | Daily | May 6, 2027 | Airbus A321XLR |
Reykjavik rejoins American network
American has announced daily flights between Philadelphia and Reykjavik (KEF) and will utilize its regular Airbus A321neo on this route. Flights are expected to start on May 27, 2027.
There is already a lot of connectivity from Iceland to the U.S. east coast thanks a combination of airlines including Icelandair, Delta and United. I find American’s post to be somewhat puzzling as they are marketing this as a new destination, but in reality, they previously flew to Reykjavik from Dallas/Fort Worth in the summer of 2018 and shifted to Philly just before the start of the pandemic.
| Origin | Destination | Frequency | Start Date | Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia (PHL) | Reykjavik (KEF) | Daily | May 27, 2027 | Airbus A321neo |
Four new city pairs
American has also announced four new city pairs, flying to destinations that are already currently served from other parts of their network as follows.
| Origin | Destination | Frequency | Start Date | Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago (ORD) | Tokyo Narita (NRT) | Daily | March 19, 2027 | Boeing 787-9 |
| New York (JFK) | Amsterdam (AMS) | Daily | March 28, 2027 | Airbus A321XLR |
| New York (JFK) | London Heathrow (LHR) | Bumped up to 4x Daily | March 28, 2027 | Boeing 787-9P |
| New York (JFK) | Nice (NCE) | Daily | May 6, 2027 | Airbus A321XLR |
| Charlotte (CLT) | Barcelona (BCN) | Daily | May 27, 2027 | Boeing 777-200ER |
It’s nice to see a third option being added between New York and Amsterdam, mind you with an Airbus A321XLR. Delta and KLM already have a strong grip on the market, and will operate one to two, and two to three daily flights respectively around the time when American plans to start that route. Widebody fans may prefer to go with one of the SkyTeam members instead of American, but hopefully their introduction could add a little pressure to reduce prices to Amsterdam, which can be a little pricier to travel to compared to surrounding cities.
Regarding this specific route, I’d say this strategy isn’t surprising as both KLM and Delta have respective feeders out of AMS through their alliance partnership, making it easy for them to run widebodies. American on the other hand doesn’t have that privilege, and may be at a disadvantage trying to run anything bigger than the A321XLR.
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Finally, besides these four new pairs, American will also add a fourth daily flight between New York and London-Heathrow (LHR) using their newly configured Boeing 787-9 with Flagship business class suites.
“Coming off a summer of celebration, American is growing to offer new destinations and routes, bolstering our premium global route offerings,” said American’s Senior Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning Brian Znotins. “Our international network has expanded to offer destinations to satisfy every travel palate. Combined with our investments enhancing our onboard product and inflight experience, travelers have more reasons to choose American when they fly around the world.”
While not the most exciting announcement as compared to what United recently unveiled, it does speak more to American’s plans to utilize their Airbus A321XLRs. The carrier is at a pivotal point where profit margins have become extremely slim compared to their North American legacy competitors, so let’s see if their bet on long-range narrowbodies pays off in the long run.
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