Even though you may still be figuring out plans for Labor Day weekend, American Airlines is already thinking about where you’ll want to fly next summer.
The Fort Worth-based carrier just announced a significant long-haul expansion for summer 2026 that includes what the airline says are six “new” routes.
The truth is that just one of the six routes is technically “new” — but nevertheless, it’s exciting to see American flex its long-haul muscle beyond tried-and-true transatlantic destinations like London and Paris.
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You’ll find all the details below.
1 new transatlantic flight
American’s only true “new” flight will connect the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area with Athens, Greece, beginning May 21, 2026. The airline will deploy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this daily flight.
By next summer, American will fly to Athens International Airport (ATH) from a whopping five U.S. gateways, the most of any U.S. airline.
It’ll be interesting to see how this new route performs, especially since it’s the longest and furthest west of any of the other American gateway cities to Athens, which include Charlotte, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. But Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is American’s biggest hub, so it’s possible that this new route could actually take some connecting traffic away from some of its other flights to Athens.
Nevertheless, Greece continues to be a popular destination for Americans, so the airline likely is betting that it won’t have too much trouble filling up the 234 seats it’ll fly.
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5 resuming long-haul routes
The other five routes that American announced on Thursday have all been operated in the past. They include:
- DFW to Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) in Buenos Aires, service running from May 21 to Aug. 3
- DFW to Zurich Airport (ZRH), service running from May 21 to Aug. 4
- Miami International Airport (MIA) to Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP), year-round service starting March 29
- Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), summer seasonal service starting May 21
- PHL to Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG), summer seasonal service starting May 21
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The two flights from DFW are designed for “global soccer fans,” according to American. Reading between the lines, the airline is targeting fans headed to the FIFA World Cup, of which nine games will take place in Dallas next summer.
American last flew from DFW to ZRH in 2007, and it’s consistently flown from DFW to EZE in the winter.
Meanwhile, the airline last flew from MIA to MXP in 2020, but it dropped the flight at the outset of the pandemic. This service complements the recently launched flight from MIA to Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), which took off earlier this summer.
Finally, the BUD and PRG routes were last flown in the 2018 and 2019 winter seasons. They haven’t returned since the pandemic, and this time the airline will deploy a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on both services.
While frequent American flyers might’ve preferred more truly “new” routes for next summer, Brian Znotins, the airline’s network chief, told me that “we’re trying not to compare to 2019 anymore… We don’t work through a list of what we tried in 2019, and those are not going to be the first things we try in 2026.”
Instead, he looks toward market demand, and that’s pointing to Budapest and Prague. “We look at our web searches on aa.com and at the top five destinations [that people search to but] that we don’t fly to, and people get on aa.com and search for Prague and Budapest,” he explained.
American will compete with Delta’s nonstop service from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to PRG, and enjoy a monopoly on U.S. service to Budapest. The last carrier on the route was LOT Polish Airlines, which left the market in 2022.
Of course, that assumes Delta or United won’t match American’s plan to fly to Budapest — something entirely possible given that we’ve yet to learn where the two other “Big Three” airlines intend to expand next summer.
Upgauging to Tokyo
American also has some news for transpacific flyers: the airline will upgauge its service to Tokyo next summer with more premium aircraft. This includes flying a Boeing 777-300ER on the route from Dallas to Tokyo, and a Boeing 777-200 from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
Both of these flights are currently operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, and compared to summer 2025, American will increase premium seating capacity on these routes by more than 45%.
Note that the airline isn’t planning to fly its new premium-heavy Boeing 787-9P variant on these routes, which offers the highest density of premium seats in American’s long-haul fleet. That will primarily be deployed to London at the outset, according to Znotins.
Bottom line
American’s upcoming long-haul routes for next summer are certainly exciting, especially since they include some secondary European cities like Budapest and Prague.
Giving travelers more nonstop options is great, but since those two routes will be operated from PHL, plenty of flyers will still need to connect in Philly to get onto these flights. (Operating the routes from New York instead would offer a far bigger catchment area to fill these nonstops.)
Nevertheless, I’d contend that connecting in Philly is far more convenient than connecting in London or Madrid, which is what American flyers currently need to do in order to get to these destinations.
Znotins even spelled this out as part of the airline’s network strategy as it relates to the transatlantic joint venture it participates in with British Airways, Iberia and Finnair. “Our role is to serve secondary Europe on behalf of the joint venture, and their role is to serve secondary U.S. And this is right in line with that,” he said.
All told, American’s summer 2026 schedule feels a bit more of the same. This isn’t a major expansion like we’ve seen over the years from United (and to a lesser extent, Delta). Rather, this expansion feels like American is taking the safe bet — adding a little more flair to its network without dipping its toes too far across the Atlantic into more obscure territory, which is what I’d expect United and Delta to probably do again next year.
But the era of American adding new long-haul routes to more niche European cities isn’t too far off in the distance. That’s thanks to upcoming deliveries of Airbus A321XLR jets, the first of which is expected to fly for American later this year.
“We anticipate having a big A321XLR growth push in 2027. And so, this time next year, I think we’ll have even more new routes and new destinations to talk about focused on that airplane,” Znotins said.
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