American Airlines announced six new destinations for 2026 and they are entirely uninspired. Isn’t it time American Airlines returns to Asia? 
American Airlines Announces Six New Routes For 2026
American Airlines teased new routes on social media and then announced six new routes available for booking from August 11th, 2025 for flights starting as early as March of 2026. The announcement also included increased capacity to Tokyo-Haneda from Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth.
| Departure | Arrival | Service notes | Aircraft type | Region/Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) | Athens, Greece (ATH) | Summer seasonal service starts May 21, 2026 | Boeing 787-8 | Europe |
| Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) | Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) | Extended service from May 21 to Aug. 3, 2026 | Boeing 787-8 | South America |
| Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) | Zurich (ZRH) | Summer seasonal service from May 21 to Aug. 4, 2026 | Boeing 777-200 | Europe |
| Miami (MIA) | Milan (MXP) | Year-round service starts March 29, 2026 | Boeing 787-8 | Europe |
| Philadelphia (PHL) | Budapest, Hungary (BUD) | Summer seasonal service starts May 21, 2026 | Boeing 787-8 | Europe |
| Philadelphia (PHL) | Prague (PRG) | Summer seasonal service starts May 21, 2026 | Boeing 787-8 | Europe |
| Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) | Tokyo Haneda (HND) | Daily service begins March 29, 2026 | Boeing 777-300 | Tokyo Premium Capacity |
| Los Angeles (LAX) | Tokyo Haneda (HND) | Twice-daily service begins March 29, 2026 | Boeing 777-200 | Tokyo Premium Capacity |
The Tokyo Haneda flights represents an important uplift that may go otherwise overlooked:
“Compared to summer 2025, American will increase premium seating capacity to Tokyo (HND) from DFW and Los Angeles (LAX) by more than 45% next summer.” – American Airlines
None of these are called out as utilizing the new 787 Premium versions nor adjusting to A321s on the way from Airbus.
Uninspired Expansion
The sole new destination on the map is Budapest, the rest are already or recently served by American.
Athens was a new dot on the map a few years ago when American started flying from Philadelphia. Later it added New York-JFK competing with Delta and United from Newark. Chicago joined the map as well as Charlotte. Dallas is simply another frequency to the Greek capital.
Buenos Aires is just an extension; Miami to Milan and Philadelphia to Prague are restarting routes that the airline ran before the pandemic but had fallen away. Zurich is already served from Philadelphia, Dallas on a 777-200 is an expansion but still leaves Geneva without service from the airline.
Are any of these exciting? No. Two of them are just restarted service, and leaves the question as to whether there’s any service from which American can’t make an Athens flight work.
Nearly No Flights To Asia
American has gone from a respectable amount of trans-Pacific options to woefully inadequate. Shanghai on a single flight from Dallas and another to Seoul, join a couple of flights to Tokyo and that’s it. It previously served Beijing from multiple cities in the US, Hong Kong from LAX and Dallas. Starlux intends to join oneworld shortly with plenty of service to the US from its hub in Taipei.
For comparison, United which bought Pan Am’s route network across the Pacific has held and added new destinations in recent years including Manila, Ulaanbaatar, among mainstays like Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
Cathay Pacific awards are virtually impossible for Aadvantage frequent flyers which crosses off a lot of lift from North America including Dallas, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles (with multiple frequencies), Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, and Boston.
Thailand has recently been cleared for US travel, Vietnam has plenty of demand, Singapore could be an opportunity for oneworld passengers in the US, Kuala Lumpur, Bali. Really, any lift back to Asia outside of Japan would be helpful.
Conclusion
The easy argument is that American Airlines management obviously knows where to put aircraft and open routes, but if that was true it wouldn’t continue to struggle to be profitable as consistently as it does. American has partners for Europe in British Airways through London, Iberia/Vueling in Spain, Finnair in Helsinki, Royal Air Maroc in Casablanca, oneworld-adjacent Aer Lingus and its own significant footprint across the continent. South America is a strong suit for the carrier too, and demand for Africa is relatively limited. It seems like American simply isn’t interested in competing to Asia while United and Delta continue to innovate and expand in the region.
What do you think?
“ Are any of these exciting? ”
To who? Who made you the arbiter of what’s exciting? While I’ll agree AA has some challenges they mostly created themselves to increase profitability, I doubt they give a F about your thoughts.
No clue, other than pure speculation, on why you bloggers are so infatuated with SE Asia.
But like every other business, I’m sure AA is for sale if you can round up the cash since you feel you could run it better. Just get a few of those lazy “rich guys” you often brag about scamming to set up their travel to join in with you.
Then you and your Billy Mays look a like face could truly be the face of AA and like a post Epstein Lolita Express, could add more flights to Asia.
Just don’t get all coked up and die after a flight like he did. Please leave that to TPG, you appear to be a “family man”……obviously outside of work.
And what is your infatuation with constantly criticizing SE Asia?? Anytime it is mentioned you have something negative to say.
Where should I start?
People that eat cats and dogs.
Places that allow perverts to buy kids for their deviant behavior with a wink of the eye by the governments. And YES, I understand many of the customers are Westerners who deserve to be shot.
A sh#thole country that destroyed many American families over a war we should have never been involved in. And YES, we sent those soldiers to their deaths.
Responsible for the proliferation of nail salons, massage parlors and “We fix your screen” stores across our country.
The ruination of the White Lotus series.
Shall I go on? Bottom line is I question ANYONE who visits there after Hangover 2.
The fact that all these “sh&thole” words are allowed to exist on this site is mind-numbing.
You need to pull your head out of your a$$ that is buried in the sand.
The people do not eat cats and dogs, you believe legends.
The “sh&thole” country b I’m assuming you’re talking about is a vibrant nation that faced a civil war like v many nations have had, that had outside meddling.
The “buy and sell” people bit is not exclusive to Asian nations, it happens all around the world, and probably moreso in North America.
Spew your weird words into another space and educate yourself.
Actually I believe AI and Wiki
“ Countries where dog and cat meat are consumed (to varying degrees): China, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, and Nagaland in India are listed as countries where some level of dog and cat meat consumption occurs.”
A shitty movie is your guiding light for Southeast Asia? If we shook your head, I bet it would sound like two nickels rattling around an empty Coke can.
Two facts:
American doesn’t partner in any way with Vueling. IAG owns them, but AA has no agreement in any way.
It would be awesome if Starlux joined OW, but there’s no plans for that to actually happen, especially not “shortly” as you say.
One opinion:
PRG and BUD are quite ‘inspired.’ Very popular destination with limited service to the US.
But I agree with your overall premise. I wish AA did serve more destinations in Asia. Though in reality, if I’m paying cash I’d rather be on CX or JL.
@Jerry – According to Starlux’ CEO, the airline intends to apply before the end of 2025. https://upgradedpoints.com/news/starlux-airlines-apply-oneworld-alliance/
OK, and I would like to officially declare my eligibility for the 2026 MLB draft. Every airline wants to join an alliance, but Starlux is a long way off, and has a pretty big hill to climb for CX to not veto them. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it’s still in the pipe dream phase.
They are flying to cities with weak home airlines. EVA Air, ANA, Singapore Airlines are hard to beat. ITA, Aegean, Wizz are much weaker.
Italy has a great train network making a domestic air network less necessary. While the same can be said for say Japan. Japan is an island so needs a better air network just like say the UK or Singapore (peninsula)
American’s management – not leadership since the merger – still largely retains the ULCC regional airline mentality. The last time I flew first class to Asia on AA (DFW-ICN) I was handed a paper photocopy of a menu page and was told to order quickly or the business class passengers would order first, leaving me with leftovers. That pretty much synopsizes the flight.
There’s gobs of routes American could profitably fly but they’d have to upgrade service, amenity kits, and catering, all very substantially. Serving $8 a bottle wine in business class doesn’t work and Asian carriers are pretty much all offering better service than any USA airline. Unfortunately, making these changes requires leadership, courage, imagination, and a commitment to improvement, none of which are in evidence from AA. American needs Oscar Munoz.
We easily booked Cathay with our Advantage miles, from Phoenix to LAX to HKG to Hanoi, and we returned Saigon-NRT-SFO-PHX on JAL.
In what cabin?
Economy. Fine with me, I usually nonrefundable, sojust having a seat is fine.
I meant to say I usually non-rev, but the speller messed it up…grrrr.
When Kyle plays armchair airline CEO I can’t help but wonder why no one is calling him for the job. This is the stuff of a commenter here. Not someone who professes any sort of insider skill or true knowledge of the industry.
Please go back to cruises, Kyle. At least you have some level of understanding as to boarding processes and buffets to help your readers.
Post of the day!
Considering the quality of airline CEOs we have, at least for the Big Three, Kyle would be a notable improvement. There’s a lot that he writes about that I don’t happen to agree with but that’s no reason to descend to childish insults. In this particular post he brings up some very valid points. Why don’t you refute them if you feel that those points are badly made?
Let me start with the fact that he is not in the room where it happened. He is sitting on his lazy boy and dreaming. He has no data, no information inside, or any knowledge of the what’s at play with regulations, slots, or aircraft allotment and the myriad of other considerations.
Basically, he is a blind man giving advice on the best path through the forest. Let’s leave that to the commenters here. Not to those who are professing any sort of expertise.
@Antwerp – You’re right, I’m not qualified to be the CEO of American Airlines. But there is some data that supports their plans and current approach are not working – their earnings report. The carrier hasn’t made money from flying people and things (that’s excluding the loyalty program) since 2019.
They are in the bottom third in terms of performance, often behind Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier. Alaska – with a fraction of the fleet – has increased its value 50% in the last five years and only slightly trails the far larger American Airlines. They’ve done this with a smaller footprint, fewer jets, and a more limited credit card portfolio and loyalty revenue. American over the same period is down 5% with the highest amount of debt of any carrier in the US.
I’m not qualified to run an airline, we agree on that. But American’s management clearly doesn’t know how to run a business and what they are doing isn’t working. The concept that the status quo for a failing airline is the right move lacks both business savvy and commercial airline management expertise. No one needs to be “in the room” to see that.
Operating to Asia from DFW is very limited without Russian airspace. PHX gets too hot in the summer, and LAX is so competitive you are lucky to make money.
@Mitch – Fair points.
LOL great article! Crazy they do that!
You’ve been the CEO of how many airlines?
To be fair he does employ multiple kids just out of college that thought they were signing up to be glamorous “travel agents”. And then taught them the dirty underbelly of the industry on how to scam miles through fraudulent charges, chargebacks and other things the industry “experts” don’t publicly discuss. Also see travel and stay for stories praising the business.
While acting like they travel the world on points like you too can if you just signup for a card through their affiliate link.
Granted most industries aren’t honest on how they operate but the travel blogger industry is among the worst for dishonesty and filled with grifters. Slightly above clothing influencers and just behind gambling scammers claims.
Does Asia want, or need, American? Oneworld traffic is covered out of HKG & Tokyo, United has cornered the market for those who prefer a US carrier, and Delta is well established to key ports with Skyteam connections to almost everywhere. AA might be able to capture some market share, but it’s difficult to see them making serious inroads against the incumbents. They’ve missed the boat.
@Pete – By that logic, these expansion routes wouldn’t make sense either. British Airways, Finnair, Iberia have Europe covered, right? I agree that Delta has a great presence as does United, but certainly, for more than half the world’s population centered in Asia there’s room for more. I’m an American customer, I would prefer more nonstop routes, I can’t imagine I am alone.
It would go a long way for AA if they better coordinated banks with JAL out of TYO. Most AA flights operate to HND (for good reason, HND is so much more convenient than NRT), however, connecting banks out of HND, especially westbound, are not well aligned. Layovers on most itineraries are 6-7 hours, while layovers on itineraries connecting in NRT are 2-3 hours. Me personally, I feel like this is a massive wasted opportunity for AA. They are legally allowed to coordinate schedules with JAL, and Japanese airports are known for being rather easy to connect in. If schedules were better aligned so that AA flights from the mainland had well-timed JAL connections, it could actually make AA competitive in Asia on a lot of itineraries.
I agree with Mitch that expansion from DFW is nearly impossible with the Russian airspace closures, and LAX is just way to competitive to return a good profit (even Delta and United don’t have huge Asian networks out of LAX). Aligning with JAL can be a good temporary solution, effectively what they’re doing with BA in Heathrow right now. They throw a bunch of capacity into TYO that’s timed with JAL connections, and allow for simple, one-stop itineraries with JAL. It’s not ideal, but it’s a way to survive in Asia until Russia/Ukraine (hopefully) works out.
Crazy to go to China. They arrest people more and more out-of-the-blue. Not worth the risk. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day they don’t let a plane fly back out. Anything is possible. You don’t want to be near China in another Asian country if they decide to takeover Taiwan. You would be lucky to get out because you will be competing with citizens of Asian countries scrambling to leave. Americans working for our government and military families would have priority to fly out under NEO evacuation plans. Good luck finding a seat!
OR CATCH COVID 25
UA propaganda here.
there is no direct thailand flight, its a stopover so no big deaL there
ulbantaar was just added now
as far as china goes no airline in the world is adding capacity there
yes they are adding capacity in japan where the demand is
@LA BOY – Did someone say there was a direct flight to Thailand? United and Delta don’t have to add capacity because they already have flights there.
Due to the JVs, none of the US3 fly to DUS, which is the de facto capital of one of the most affluent and productive regions in Europe, and probably the world. There’s no reason for them to fly to equivalent cities in the Far East, particularly when we’re talking more or less double the distance.
So, they’re boring. So what?
I think the issue with Asia is that OW has JAL, Cathay, Malaysia, and Alaska/Hawaiian in it (not to mention, Fiji/Qantas). It would probably, in the scheme of things, make a certain amount of sense to just let AS/HA deal with the Pacific and focus on Europe, especially given that AS hubs all along the West Coast whereas AA only has PHX/LAX west of DFW (and LAX is sort-of an “everyone hub”).
I’m amazed at the hate this guy is getting over a totally sensible article. Who among us can really disagree that American Airlines is absolutely pathetic to Asia?
The question is who and WHY does any American in America want to go there?
Dirty places and people and you can a massage or your nails done here if you really want it.
Dave, enough with your creepy assed responses regarding Asia.
Get help
They don’t have the hubs or planes to be competitive in the TPAC market. Without Russian airspace, much beyond Tokyo just isn’t doable.
Both American Airlines and United Airlines have JV partners at Tokyo Narita Airport. While UAL operates 5 daily flight to NRT from continental U.S., AAL has only one daily flight.
After COVID-19, DAL restarted LAX to Shanghai, China flight. UAL applied to start the same route coming winter. AAL once operate this route pre-2019, and I have not heard anything from AAL about service resumption.
This shows that AAL has no plan to serve Pacific Asia region on her own planes, except in a few routes.
United has been flying to Shanghai from LAX for a while now.
You’re right. UAL has been flying Shanghai from LAX for a while. It is LAX-PEK route while UAL is applying to fly coming winter.
I dont understand this comment: The sole new destination on the map is Budapest, the rest are already or recently served by American.
American served Budapest until fall of 2019, just like it served Prague until fall of 2019. Why is Budapest being called out as “sole new destination” when it, like Prague, actually is “recently served by American”?
United continues to expand, Delta is starting service on LAX-HKG, Alaska will likely start a SEA-Asia flight…
By the time American Managment get off their asses they won’t be a slice of the pie left, only crumbs
PHL to PRG is actually somewhat unique and nice to have because only Delta has any regular service from the US or even the entire western hemisphere to Prague. Yes Air Canada has some service from YYZ but it’s not daily. Same goes for Budapest, far more unique than another NY to Paris or London, which currently has zero service to anywhere in the Americas.
You didn’t mention Delhi. AA flies non stop from JFK to Delhi daily.
Could someone show AA where they can order some A350s or more 787s to replace their very antiquated and worn out 777s on their long haul routes? I’m a faithful EP customer but their long haul planes are the worst in the business.
I believed that, back in 2022 or 2023, AAL negotiated with Boeing and delayed delivery of 10 B787 dreamliner from 2024 to 2028 and beyond. At the time, AAL’s plan was to receive the first Airbus A321XLR in 2024, which would take over some routes flown by wide-body planes.
Unfortunately, both AAL and UAL would likely keep their fleet of B777-200 planes in service for another 5 years or more.