Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, from American Airlines company, taking off from Barcelona airport, in Barcelona on twenty fourth February 2023.
JanValls | Nurphoto | Getty Images
As social media feeds make their seasonal shift from the Parthenon to pumpkin patches, airlines are busy preparing for the 2025 Europe travel season, a bet that strong demand for international travel will proceed next summer.
American Airlines on Thursday unveiled latest routes to Europe for spring and summer next 12 months. The carrier rolled out nonstop service from Chicago to Madrid starting March 30; Philadelphia to Milan starting May 23; Philadelphia to Edinburgh, Scotland, starting May 23, back for the primary time since 2019; Charlotte, North Carolina, to Athens, Greece, starting June 5; and Miami to Rome from July 5.
Rivals United Airlines and Delta Air Lines are expected to release their 2025 travel plans in the approaching weeks.
American said its trans-Atlantic capability next summer will likely be up low-to-mid-single digits over this 12 months, with executives confident that customers will proceed to prioritize travel.
“In ’23 when people saw this demand to Italy and Greece, some people speculated that it was a one-year thing. But then this 12 months, that strength just kept going and our flights are full and the yields are strong,” said Brian Znotins, American’s senior vice chairman of network planning. “More capability is warranted to handle the demand.”
American’s data shows that travelers, including on other airlines, are sometimes connecting in Europe to get to Athens, particularly, Znotins said. Next 12 months, American said it’s going to have 4 day by day nonstops from the U.S. to Athens from “more U.S. airports than every other,” and that more travelers will have the opportunity to attach through American’s hubs like Charlotte.
The carrier can also be bringing back other Europe flights from its Philadelphia hub to Naples, Italy; Nice, France; and Copenhagen, Denmark, in addition to extending winter seasonal service between Miami and Paris into the summer season.
Boeing’s delivery delays of 787 Dreamliners over the past several years prompted American and other carriers to rethink a few of their flying and cut certain international flights that the long-haul airplanes serve. American can also be in the course of reconfiguring a few of its older Boeing 777s to construct a much bigger business class cabin.
Znotins said he and his team drew up next 12 months’s map with each things in mind.
“There’s some level of uncertainty obviously within the aircraft delivery world and there is a level of uncertainty with our reconfigurations,” Znotins said. “We’re confident we’ll have the opportunity to fly these routes as we have published them, but in an uncertain world it is often nice to have a backstop” like other hub cities serving Athens, for instance, should a passenger must be rerouted.
