Even though summer isn’t officially over for a few more weeks, American Airlines is already planning some big moves. Next summer.
The Fort Worth-based airline on Thursday announced plans for a major network expansion by summer 2025, including five new routes to Europe, season extensions on four key transatlantic flights and more.
You can find all the details about American’s 2025 summer schedule below.
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Tickets for the new flights will go on sale starting Monday through American’s website and mobile app.
5 new American routes to Europe
American is expecting a busy summer with travelers traveling across the Atlantic and is meeting that demand with five new routes to Europe, including:
- Charlotte-Athens, Greece, starting June 5, 2025, on Boeing 777-200ER
- Chicago-Madrid, starting March 30, 2025, on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- Miami-Rome, starting July 5, 2025, on Boeing 777-200ER aircraft
- Philadelphia-Edinburgh, starting May 23, 2025, on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- Philadelphia-Milan, starting May 23, 2025, on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
Highlights of the expansion include two new routes from Philadelphia, American’s main transatlantic gateway. This summer, American added three new transatlantic destinations from Philly — Copenhagen; Naples, Italy; and Nice, France — and the airline is now adding two more flights.
American confirmed that all three new destinations in summer 2024, along with service to Barcelona from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), will relaunch next summer.
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Notably, American will serve Edinburgh for the first time since 2019. The airline hasn’t served the Scottish capital since before the pandemic; its last flight from Philly to Edinburgh was in October 2019, according to Cirium schedules.
Additionally, American is adding two new routes to Italy, one of the most popular destination for US tourists looking for a summer vacation in Europe. In total, American will serve Rome from six U.S. airports by 2025—Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia—more than any other domestic airline.
American will also serve Athens next summer from four US airports (Charlotte, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia), the most of any US airline.
Meanwhile, the new Chicago to Madrid flight will be supported by connecting traffic across Europe, the Middle East and Africa on American’s Oneworld alliance and transatlantic joint venture partner Iberia.
These new routes aren’t as “sexy” as the new destinations American added last year. When asked about the strategy behind these new routes, Brian Znotins, American’s senior vice president of network and schedule planning, told TPG that “we really pay attention to where people are going and what we’ve seen… I’ll use Athens as an example. Despite all the service that’s been added to Greece over the last few years, including ours, there’s still a large number of passengers connecting within Europe to Athens. And that really shows the demand for additional nonstop flights from the United States.”
In total, American will serve 17 transatlantic destinations from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) next summer, and travelers will be able to connect to more than 80 U.S. destinations from PHL.
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This continued expansion at PHL has come at the expense of transatlantic growth in New York, where American has not grown as rapidly as it has in Philly. (The airline recently launched flights from New York to Tokyo.)
Znotins said American’s centers in Philly and New York serve completely different purposes.
“There’s a lot of comparison between us in Philly and New York, and I think that’s just because they’re geographically close. They couldn’t be any further apart in terms of how we build our schedules there and the kind of demand we’re going after. … Whether we’re going after connections or local demand, they’re on opposite ends of the scale,” he said.
Philly’s schedule is built to help attract relationships, while New York focuses on the local market.
4 routes with longer seasons
In addition to American’s new transatlantic routes, the airline will expand service hours on some transatlantic flights.
Most notable is the Miami to Paris service, which previously operated as a seasonal flight in the winter. American will expand the route to daily summer service next summer.
Additionally, the airline will begin flights from DFW to Barcelona and PHL to Athens earlier than originally planned. These flights will now begin on March 30, 2025.
The airline will also restart flights from Philly to Naples on May 5, 2025, about a month earlier than originally planned (June 4, 2025).
While American focuses on major expansion, the airline will reduce frequencies slightly next summer. The airline will reduce its daily flights between Chicago and London from four to three next summer.
4 upgrades to Asia
While the focus is primarily on expanding transatlantic routes, American will also add four transpacific flights starting in late March.
You can find all the details below.
| Start | Arrive | Service Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) | Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) | Daily service on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner |
| DFW | Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) | Daily service on Boeing 777-200ER aircraft |
| DFW | Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) | Daily service on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner |
| Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) | Tokyo Haneda | Twice-daily service on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner |
2 new domestic routes
In addition to expanding its long-haul routes, American is expanding its hub in Philadelphia with two new domestic routes.
These routes not only attract non-stop travelers, but also increase the number of one-stop transfer options the airline can offer to travelers looking to connect to its new services in Europe.
American will add service from PHL to Omaha and Des Moines on June 5, 2025. Both routes will be operated twice daily with CRJ-900 regional jets.
These two new domestic routes will join the airline’s recently announced new route from Philadelphia to Northwest Arkansas National Airport (XNA) near Bentonville, with service set to begin December 19, 2024.
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The last line
Overall, American’s 2025 summer schedule fits with the airline’s recent network strategy of increasing flights to popular European gateways.
“While we love new destinations and new spots on the map, ultimately our job is to meet demand, and demand is still moving towards Italy and Greece,” Znotins explains.
Expanding service to countries like Italy and Greece makes sense. They are popular with Americans and are a more solid option than adding secondary European destinations like Palma de Mallorca and Malaga in Spain.
The latter strategy is one that United Airlines has been perfecting recently, as the airline has steadily added new (and smaller) destinations in Europe over the past few summers.
American becomes the first US airline to announce its summer 2025 schedule, and all eyes are now on Delta Air Lines and United to see what network planners in Atlanta and Chicago are cooking up.
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