American Plans Five Transatlantic Additions For Summer 2025

american airlines 787-8
Credit: Imago/Alamy Stock Photo

American Airlines will expand its transatlantic network for summer 2025 with five new routes to Europe, including a return to Edinburgh, Scotland, for the first time since 2019.

The Fort Worth-based carrier will offer daily service to Edinburgh and Milan Malpensa from Philadelphia, while Miami will add new daily flights to Rome Fiumicino, bringing the total number of routes to Italy’s capital to six.

The airline will also introduce daily service from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Athens, Greece, and open a new route between Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD). Flights to Copenhagen; Naples, Italy; and Nice, France—originally launched in 2024—will also return for the 2025 summer travel season.

Additionally, the Oneworld alliance member plans to extend its winter seasonal service between Miami and Paris Charles de Gaulle into the summer, operating daily.

Brian Znotins, American’s senior vice president of network and schedule planning, says the summer schedule will offer passengers “more ways to visit their favorite destinations in Europe” through its U.S. hubs. More than 70 daily departures will be offered across its transatlantic network during the season.

Currently, American serves 14 European destinations from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), including Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Venice, Italy. The addition of Edinburgh Airport (EDI) will mark the airline’s return to the Scottish capital for the first time since October 2019, while Milan will be a new destination from PHL. According to OAG Schedules Analyser data, American will be the sole operator on both routes.

EDI CEO Gordon Dewar noted that American’s return will see the airport reconnecting and “significantly surpassing” all of its pre-COVID transatlantic routes, highlighting the “significant North American demand” for Edinburgh and Scotland in general.

Znotins previously explained that expanding transatlantic service from Philadelphia, rather than New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), was “not a tradeoff of one versus the other.” He stated that JFK focuses more on the local New York market, while Philadelphia serves travelers from across the U.S., making it a better hub for connections to secondary European cities.

From Miami, American currently flies to Barcelona, London Heathrow and MAD, offering combined 4X-daily departures. It will compete in the Miami-Italy market with Italian flag-carrier ITA Airways, which operates a daily flight from Rome.

American will become the sole operator of Charlotte Douglas International Airport-Athens service, supplementing seasonal routes to Greece’s capital from New York JFK, ORD and PHL. Between ORD and MAD, the carrier will join Oneworld partner Iberia in serving the route.

American’s summer 2024 schedule features some 50 nonstop routes between the U.S. and Europe, offering up to 67 flights per day and more than 250,000 two-way weekly seats. Its capacity on U.S.-Europe routes in September 2024 is about 958,000 two-way seats, giving it a 10.5% share of the market, behind Delta Air Lines on 14.9% and United Airlines on 14.6%.

Elsewhere, American will expand capacity on four routes to Asia next summer. The airline will operate larger aircraft on all flights from Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles to Tokyo Haneda.

David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.