Aircraft Delays Curb American’s 2027 Long-Haul Expansion

American Airlines expected to announce as many as 13 new long-haul routes for summer 2027, but aircraft delivery delays forced the carrier to scale back its plans, a senior executive told AirlineGeeks.

The finalized schedule includes seven new routes: Philadelphia to Vienna, Porto and Reykjavik; New York-JFK to Amsterdam and Nice; Charlotte to Barcelona; and Chicago O’Hare to Tokyo Narita. American will also restore a fourth daily flight between New York-JFK and London Heathrow.

“In February of this year, I was at an internal conference here for American, and I was really getting the crowd excited about the potential for 10 to 13 new long-haul routes being announced at this time for summer 2027,” Brian Znotins, American’s senior vice president of network planning, told AirlineGeeks on Wednesday.

“We are absolutely constrained by the number of airplanes that we have,” he added.

At the time, American expected to have approximately 13 additional long-haul aircraft available year over year, Znotins said. Delivery delays have since reduced that figure by five aircraft.

“I’ve been really disappointed in Boeing and Airbus for a number of years now, and they continue to disappoint me this year,” he said. “If Boeing and Airbus had delivered on their promises, this would be a huge route expansion for us for summer 2027 as well.”

Znotins said the seven routes will likely represent American’s complete summer 2027 long-haul expansion, barring an unexpected improvement in aircraft availability.

“This will pretty much be it for summer 2027,” he said. “There’s a possibility, if we squeeze another airplane out of a flow or something like that, we can do something else.”

Some aircraft previously expected during the first half of 2027 are now projected to arrive later in the year. Znotins said those deliveries could create opportunities for winter 2027, while summer 2028 will represent another chance for broader expansion.

“I’m not really excited about adding new trans-Atlantic flying in September,” he said. “Usually, you want to do that in May and June when the demand is strong.”

The XLR Takes on the Atlantic

Four of the seven routes will use American’s Airbus A321XLR: New York-JFK to Amsterdam and Nice, along with Philadelphia to Porto and Vienna.

American has also used operational data from partner Iberia, which already flies the type across the Atlantic, to better understand the aircraft’s performance. That information helped give the airline confidence to schedule Vienna, which will be one of American’s longer A321XLR routes at just over 4,300 miles.

Still, Znotins acknowledged that the aircraft does not deliver the range American originally expected.

“At the end of the day, while the XLR range isn’t what we were sold when we bought the airplane from Airbus, and that’s disappointing to any network planner, we are confident in its capabilities now, and thus we’re planning our routes accordingly,” he said.

Znotins did not specify the size of the range shortfall.

American initially prioritized its A321XLR deliveries for replacing the aging Airbus A321T fleet used on premium transcontinental routes. As more of that replacement work is completed, the airline will be able to allocate additional XLRs to international service.

“What you saw was mostly transcon with the XLR for the last year and a half, and it will become mostly trans-Atlantic for the future,” Znotins said.

For the next several years, American expects to concentrate its XLR growth at New York-JFK and Philadelphia. Znotins said the aircraft could eventually move between Europe in the summer and South America during the winter, when demand shifts south, but described that strategy as several years away.

Vienna Joins American’s Network

Vienna will be a new destination for American when service from Philadelphia begins May 6. American says it will be the only U.S. airline serving the Austrian capital.

Znotins said Vienna had been under consideration for years, but the A321XLR finally gives American an aircraft with the appropriate capacity for the market. Philadelphia will provide connections throughout the U.S., helping offset the lack of a oneworld partner hub in Vienna.

“Vienna has always been on the radar, but just never seemed to make the list,” he said. “Having an airplane that allows us to go into another alliance’s hub with the right level of capacity and offer the only U.S. carrier service to Vienna — that schedule differentiation is a big deal for us.”

Unlike many seasonal European routes, the Vienna service will continue through the Christmas market season and operate into early January 2028. Delta was the last U.S. carrier flying to Vienna before ending service in 2008.

American also sees Vienna as complementary to its recently launched Philadelphia routes to Budapest and Prague. According to Znotins, approximately 20% of customers arriving in one of those two cities return from the other.

Adding Vienna will give passengers a third option for multi-city itineraries along the Danube, potentially supporting all three routes.

“There’s a halo effect that you get where other cities get stronger as you add other ones to the mix,” Znotins said.

Reykjavik Returns Without the XLR

American will return to Reykjavik for the first time since 2019, operating the Philadelphia route with a standard Airbus A321neo rather than the longer-range XLR.

Znotins said that decision was driven by limited XLR availability. American preferred to assign the aircraft to longer routes such as Porto and Nice while using the A321neo on the shorter Reykjavik flight.

“We didn’t have enough XLRs, obviously, to add Reykjavik on an XLR,” he added. “The only way we could do that is with the NEO, and so we’re pretty happy to do that.”

The route will also give American experience operating its standard A321neo across the Atlantic. Znotins left open the possibility of using the aircraft on other short trans-Atlantic markets but cautioned that destinations substantially farther than Iceland could exceed its practical capabilities.

Elsewhere, Amsterdam is intended to fill what Znotins described as a gap in American’s New York business network. The airline will also add Nice from JFK and restore a fourth daily London flight using a Boeing 787-9 equipped with Flagship Suite seats.

The previously-announced Chicago-Tokyo flight will begin March 19, while the new European routes will launch between March 28 and May 27. Tickets will be available beginning Aug. 31.