American’s New Flights To Birmingham, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, And London!

American has announced four new flights to Europe that will launch in 2015, whereby we’re seeing an additional frequency on an existing route, a new route to an existing destination, and two new destinations altogether (at least as far as American “metal” goes).

According to airlineroute.net, reservations for these flights are expected to open tomorrow, Sunday, November 2, 2014.

American’s second daily Los Angeles to London flight

Let’s start with the news we already knew, as I wrote about this new route on Thursday.

American will commence a second daily Los Angeles to London Heathrow Boeing 777-300ER flight as of March 28, 2015, with the following schedule:

AA108 Los Angeles to London departing 5:55PM arriving 12:25PM (+1 day)
AA109 London to Los Angeles departing 12:15PM arriving 3:40PM

With this, we’re also seeing the existing frequency retimed, so that service is spaced out a bit:

AA136 Los Angeles to London departing 6:35PM arriving 1:15PM (+1 day)
AA135 London to Los Angeles departing 2:00PM arriving 5:30PM

This complements British Airways’ twice daily A380 service on the route, making American and British Airways by far the strongest joint venture between Los Angeles and London.

My thoughts on the second daily London frequency: This route makes perfect sense. Los Angeles to London is a huge, high yield market, so I’m not surprised American is doing double daily 777-300ER service on the route.

American 777-300ER business class

American’s daily Miami to Frankfurt flight

As Doug Parker hinted at a few weeks ago, American will indeed relaunch daily Miami to Frankfurt Boeing 767-300 flights as of May 14, 2015, with the following schedule:

AA250 Miami to Frankfurt departing 2:45PM arriving 6:15AM (+1 day)
AA251 Frankfurt to Miami departing 10:00AM arriving 2:55PM

American operated this route up until 1997, so it’s interesting to see this route emerge again. This route is being launched 10 days after airberlin is canceling their Miami to Berlin flight.

My thoughts on the new Miami to Frankfurt flight: This new flight will almost certainly come at the expense of one of US Airways’ Frankfurt frequencies out of Charlotte or Philadelphia. It’s interesting to note that this flight is operated by one of American’s 767s. It wouldn’t have surprised me if this were American’s first cross-fleeting longhaul international flight, which could have been operated by a US Airways A330. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

American’s 767-300 new business class

American’s new New York to Edinburgh flight

American will begin daily New York to Edinburgh Boeing 757-200 flights as of May 7, 2015, with the following schedule:

AA278 New York to Edinburgh departing 7:10PM arriving 7:15AM (+1 day)
AA279 Edinburgh to New York departing 9:15AM arriving 11:50AM

My thoughts on the new New York to Edinburgh flight: American also flies Philadelphia to Edinburgh seasonally, and I’d be very surprised if this new route wasn’t simply a replacement of that one.

Edinburgh

American’s new New York to Birmingham flight

Then American will begin daily New York to Birmingham Boeing 757-200 flights as of May 7, 2015, with the following schedule:

AA130 New York to Birmingham departing 7:00PM arriving 7:10AM (+1 day)
AA131 Birmingham to New York departing 10:00AM arriving 12:55PM

My thoughts on the new New York to Birmingham flight: This is a completely new destination for American and US Airways, so that’s pretty cool. At the end of the day I’m always excited about any new international destinations I can use my American systemwide upgrades on.

Bottom line

These new routes aren’t massively exciting like the new Dallas to Hong Kong flight, in my opinion.

But they are cool, and I find the implications interesting:

• The Los Angeles to London flight makes sense
• The Miami to Frankfurt flight sort of makes sense, though without much of a oneworld presence in Frankfurt and therefore limited connection prospects, I’m not totally sold on the idea.

But the New York expansion is what surprises me most. American had a diagram about all their hubs in a recent employee newsletter, and they described New York as follows:

New York/NYC: A destination in itself that connects the largest air travel market in the U.S. to our international network, with an emphasis on Europe via JFK and domestic network via LGA

The way I’ve viewed their future in New York is that they’re trying to serve mostly “local” passengers, while most passengers connecting to Europe would route through Philadelphia, for example. I can’t imagine New York to Birmingham or Edinburgh are really big enough markets if the goal is to almost exclusively fly “local” passengers. If they were relying mostly on connecting passengers, Philadelphia seems like a more logical option.

Once these new routes become bookable I’ll be sure to post if I see any upgrade or award space!

What do you think of American’s new Europe service?