American Airlines is looking forward to 2020 with the extension of several popular seasonal transatlantic routes. This announcement comes as American's joint venture partner, British Airways, announced its new service to Portland from London-Heathrow. Overall, this should give travelers plenty of other options and flexibility to see some key destinations in Europe next year.

Airbus A330 American Airlinse
Long-haul routes are generally more expensive to launch and operate than short-haul routes. Photo: American Airlines

American's seasonal service extension

Transatlantic services are key for airlines. This is because of the significant number of both business and leisure destinations across the pond. It seems now that, in 2020, American is going big when it comes to long-haul routes. Alongside new services to New Zealand, American will extend five key transatlantic routes into the winter season of 2020.

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The 787 would be a prime aircraft for flights to Doha. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying

Which American routes will see a service extension?

American Airlines is extending services for the following routes:

  • Chicago (ORD) to Barcelona (BCN) will run through November 29, 2020
  • Chicago (ORD) to Athens (ATH) will run through October 24, 2020
  • Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Rome (FCO) will run through January 5, 2021
  • Philadelphia (PHL) to Prague (PRG) will run through January 5, 2021
  • Philadelphia (PHL) to Lisbon (LIS) will run through January 5, 2021

The planes

Both routes out of Philadelphia, to Prague and Lisbon, will see Airbus A330-200 service. American Airlines inherited the A330s as part of a merger with US Airways and, since then, has placed these aircraft on transatlantic services. Meanwhile, both routes out of Chicago and the Dallas flight to Rome will have Boeing 787-8 service.

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Fuel-efficient twinjet Boeing 787s will fly on several of the seasonal extensions. Photo: American Airlines

American's European network

Next summer, American will also add new seasonal service from O'Hare to Budapest, Hungary and Krakow, Poland. Meanwhile, Philadelphia will also see Reykjavik services. While American Airlines has scaled back out of O'Hare on flights to China, the airline has expanded out of O'Hare to Europe.

American Airlines 767

Hub-based growth

These routes are out of American Airlines' hubs. Generally, airlines will launch new routes out of hubs in order to better align connections, fill up planes, and utilize aircraft efficiently. These new routes, while they may have some origin and destination demand, will likely be driven through connections.

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American recently announced systemwide increases– mostly out of its hubs. Photo: Getty Images

Overall

Airlines have taken different approaches when it comes to transatlantic growth. Whereas Delta is focused more along the lines of shuffling passengers through partner hubs, American has gone out and tested new markets.

This growth is consistent with what Vasu Raja, the Senior Vice President of Network Strategy, detailed when I sat down with him back in October. If these work out, then American will likely keep an extended schedule through the future. Otherwise, the Dallas-based airline will fly these aircraft to other either well-tested or new markets.

Will you take any of these American Airlines flights in 2020? Let us know in the comments!