American Airlines is adding three routes from Chicago O’Hare, including a return to Tokyo Narita after a seven year pause.
American Airlines Returns To Chicago–Tokyo With 787-9 Narita Flight
American Airlines is re-laumching three routes from Chicago O’Hare, including a long-awaited return to Tokyo Narita. The new routes were first leaked by JonNYC yesterday but confirmed my AA earlier today.
American will launch daily service between Chicago (ORD) and Tokyo Narita (NRT) on March 27, 2027. The route will be operated by a Boeing 787-9, though not the newer 787-9P with the larger Flagship Suite business class cabin.
American is also adding two domestic routes from Chicago:
- Chicago–Charlottesville (CHO), twice daily on an Embraer E170, starting November 2, 2026
- Chicago–Ontario (ONT), daily on a Boeing 737, starting November 7, 2026
The domestic additions are interesting, especially because both are routes United already serves from Chicago (and both are routes that AA has served in the past). But the Narita flight is the bigger strategic move.
American Needs More Asia From Chicago
American flew Chicago–Tokyo Narita for many years, but ended the route in 2020. Bringing it back now makes sense, though perhaps not for the reason some casual travelers may assume.
Narita may no longer be Tokyo’s preferred airport for many business travelers, especially compared to Haneda, but Narita remains useful as a connecting hub. American’s joint venture partner Japan Airlines can provide onward connections throughout Asia, including destinations like Bangkok, Delhi, and Singapore.
That is important because American remains the weakest of the big three U.S. carriers in Asia. United has the strongest transpacific network, Delta is ramping up its Asia flying, and American relies heavily on partners. That is not necessarily a bad thing if the partnership is strong, but it does mean American has to be smart about where it deploys its own aircraft.
Chicago–Narita is a good example. American does not need to rebuild a massive Asia network from O’Hare. It needs enough flying to make Chicago more relevant internationally and to feed JAL’s network on the other side.
ORD Competition With United Continues
American and United continue to battle at O’Hare, and every new route has to be seen through that lens. United already serves Charlottesville and Ontario from Chicago, and United is also scheduled to begin Chicago–Narita flights in October. All Nippon Airways already links Chicago with both Tokyo Haneda and Narita. So does JAL.
That makes American’s Narita return less about finding an untouched opportunity and more about staying relevant in a market it cannot afford to cede to United and ANA. Chicago is one of American’s most important hubs, but it has often felt like the carrier’s international ambitions there were narrower than they should be. Dallas/Fort Worth is clearly American’s fortress. Philadelphia has become important for Europe. Miami is Latin America. Charlotte is huge domestically.
Chicago, by contrast, should be able to support more global flying than American has offered in recent years and the new Narita flight will advance that goal. It also gives AAdvantage members in the Midwest another one-stop option into Asia without having to backtrack through Dallas or rely entirely on other carriers. That is good for travelers, even if the route is not exactly a exotic (early rumors suggested that the destination would be Osaka, not Tokyo).
CONCLUSION
American Airlines is adding three Chicago routes, with new service to Tokyo Narita, Charlottesville, and Ontario.
Charlottesville and Ontario are useful domestic additions, but the Narita flight is a big step for the carrier. It restores a route American dropped in 2020 and gives the carrier another way to connect Chicago passengers into Asia through Japan Airlines.
American still has a long way to go if it wants to be taken seriously across the Pacific compared to United. But restoring Chicago–Tokyo is a step in the right direction, and one that makes sense for both O’Hare and the broader oneworld network.
It’s worth noting that UA has existing HND service from ORD (in addition to the NRT addition).
Since UA doesn’t fly to anywhere in E. Asia from Chicago other than to Tokyo, it would appear that AA is not in as bad of a position as some might argue.
why not taiwan? they have interline agreement with starlux
demand is endless, and chicago is not loaded with flights like LAX