American Airlines is signaling that its network ambitions may extend well beyond its current footprint, but the question is whether any of these “dream” routes are realistic in the near future under current market conditions. It’s also telling what regions are not on the list…
American Teases Potential New International Routes Including Mallorca, Casablanca And Cape Town As It Searches For A Longhaul Strategy
At the airline’s internal leadership event last week known as “Journey ’26,” American displayed a shortlist of potential future international destinations to employees, seemingly part strategy and part visioning exercise (employees were invited to cast their vote for their preferred destination). The list included cities such as Palma de Mallorca and Seville in Spain, Casablanca in Morocco, and Cape Town in South Africa, among others ranging across Europe, North Africa, and South America. The full list, flagged by View From The Wing, featured 10 destinations:
- Berlin, Germany (BER)
- Bordeaux, France (BOD)
- Brussels, Belgium (BRU)
- Cape Town, South Africa (CPT)
- Casablanca, Morocco (CMN)
- Cordoba, Argentina (COR)
- Mallorca, Spain (PMI)
- Seville, Spain (SVQ)
- Shannon, Ireland (SNN)
- Vienna, Austria (VIE)
A similar “vote on our next destination” activity has been seen at other carriers, but the inclusion of these particular cities highlights questions about American’s long-term strategy. None of them are official announced routes, and there are no published plans or filings suggesting imminent service to these markets. Instead, what was shown appears to be a speculative wishlist, not a set of confirmed launches.
From an operational standpoint, many of these cities would require aircraft with extended range and fuel efficiency such as the Airbus A321XLR. Routes to Mallorca or Seville from American’s U.S. hubs could potentially fit within that aircraft’s capability, but longer haul destinations like Cape Town would pose far greater range and commercial viability challenges even if there was a strategic pivot toward longhaul flying that American has not publicly signaled. And even if there was, markets like Cape Town and Johannesburg are already well-served by United Airlines and Delta Air Lines and it’s not like the governments of South Africa and the USA are seeing eye-to-eye right now (in general, but relevantly in terms of any sort of Open Skies liberalization).
Some of the destinations have prior history with American. Service to Casablanca was planned years ago but never materialized due to pandemic disruptions and fleet retirements; renewed interest may partly reflect changing aircraft capabilities and broader market development, like closer alignment with Royal Air Maroc, though many of the one-stop route options via Casablanca are alternatively available through other partners like Iberia and British Airways.
The list is interesting because it provides at least a potential window into where AA’s leadership is thinking about opportunities. It underscores three broader points about American’s network planning: first, that Europe remains a core battleground for international growth. Second, that more speculative markets beyond traditional transatlantic gateways linger in the collective strategic imagination even if they remain years away from reality. Third, there’s no mention of Asia…a telling sign of AA’s lack of ambition in East Asia.
CONCLUSION
American Airlines has floated 10 new international destinations at a meeting with employees. While service announcements are likely not imminent, by floating these new destinations internally, American is implicitly acknowledging that its global ambitions continue to evolve as it searches for a strategy, a point of constant frustration between management and front-line employees, as we will explore later today.
American is rapidly falling into an entrenched position as the number three carrier in the U.S. That’s an odd position to be in as it leaves them vulnerable domestically from top to bottom and on the international spectrum they are left behind and fragmented as to their network. Not even One World can help them now given how the alliances have deteriorated over time.
Add to this that employees are upset, customers are frustrated, and profits are barely existent and you have a recipe for disaster. The interesting play in all of this will be Alaska and Southwest. They both have a window now. Forget United and Delta. American’s greatest threat is below them and potentially rising on different sides to eventually make them virtually irrelevant in the airline market. Which is breathtaking given their history and past dominance.
Is American the next Pan Am?
“Is American the next Pan Am?” – Let’s hope not.
Isn’t this just the existing CEO finally trying to show the board that he has a vision? Between this and announcing Porto in 2027… too little too late, one would think.
Personally, I’d love to see CPT more than any of the others, and ideally, from a unique origin, like JFK, PHL, MIA, or DFW (though it could be 16-19 hours, so, maybe 772LR could pull it off, but, they may need 789 with weight restrictions to make it happen, unless they want to finally return to Airbus for an a350).
The US and South Africa do not have an open skies agreement therefore CPT can’t happen on AA because both UA and DL have gobbled up every available frequency.
Looking at the list I would estimate half of those routes never make it further than page they were written on.
I understand what you’re saying, and Sean M. has repeated the same one-liner at VFTW and OMAAT, citing BASA as the ‘end-all, be-all’ for this, and claiming ‘political tensions’ will render anything impossible… AND YET. I think that’s all noise. Trump as shown that he’s willing to blow-up good deals and bad deals, alike, often on a whim, usually over pettiness, or greed. If AAL wants a new route, and they bend the knee enough to Trump, there’ll be multiple new CPT routes at that. And, if Cyril doesn’t like it, boom, 200% tariff, until he does. It can be done, if the right people really want it. Sure, it’s probably aspirational, but, still, one can dream!
AA used to have a robust presence in Brussels with service between BRU and JFK and ORD. Then suddenly one had to fly through London via BA. What a stupid move since BRU is consistently a top destination for US carriers what with NATO, the EU and BRU being so much easier than either FRA or CDG in terms of size and ease of connections. AA is appearing desperate in its flailing about for a vision or strategy or whatever one wants to call the basic need to be coherent, focused and dedicated to customer service. Rather than cast the widest possible net of potential destinations, how about getting back to basics: timely flights, decent customer service and, for lord’s sake, repaint the dang planes away from the mess they currently are; hideous,
Mallorca is not a “city” (you list it as one), it’s an island. It’s like including “Puerto Rico” on a list of “cities” that an airlines flies to – yeah, most people will figure out what you mean, but still…the word you were searching for was probably “destinations”.
The major city on the island of Mallorca is Palma de Mallorca, whose airport (PMI) is the third busiest in Spain, so not exactly some sleepy backwater.
Thanks.
Let’s add that the magnificent Mallorca, also spelled Majorca in English, is the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, and the seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. On the other hand, the modern Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI), also known as Son Sant Joan Airport, is the fourteenth busiest airport in Europe.
Why is AA failing so badly in Asia?
It seems they simply don’t care about Asia. They don’t exactly have an excess of ultra-long range aircraft, either.
Bad management would certainly be in the mix.
DUS remains conspicuously absent despite the introduction of SVQ (where local demand is so weak that Air Europa are only just returning after years of absence) and OPO, confirming the theory that the US3 aren’t flying to any European destination unless they can basically fill the plane only on the back of demand from the US point of sale.