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Last week, American Airlines proudly announced that it planned to launch five new seasonal routes to Europe next summer and that it was expanding the season on four of its other European routes ‘to give customers more time to see the sights’.
What American Airlines failed to mention was that the changes it was making to its schedules weren’t all positive, so the news that it was also making cuts to some routes didn’t make the press release.
American Airlines summer 2025 European route cuts
Here are some of the more noticeable negative changes that American Airlines has pushed through the schedules and keep in mind that officially, the summer season runs between the end of March through to the end of October [HT: Aeroroutes]
From Chicago (ORD)
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Barcelona (BCN) will now only operate until 2 September 2025 instead of to the end of the season.
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Dublin (DUB) will now only operate between 5 June and 5 October 2025 instead of the whole summer season.
- From 30 March 2025, the 787-9 morning departure to London (LHR) will be suspended and the route will operate 3 times a day instead of 4.
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Paris (CDG) will now only operate until 2 September 2025 instead of to the end of the season.
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Venice (VCE) will now operate between 4 June and 4 October 2024 instead of to the end of the season.
Chicago may be gaining a new seasonal route to Madrid, but it’s also seeing cuts to five other routes.
From Miami (MIA)
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Paris (CDG) will now only operate until 4 August 2025 instead of to the end of the season.
Miami will be getting a new seasonal service to Rome from 5 July 2025, but it will also see a significantly shortened season on the route to Paris.
From New York (JFK)
- The daily seasonal 777-200ER service between New York (JFK) and Athens (ATH) will now only operate between 4 May and 1 September 2025. Previously, it was scheduled to start up on 30 March and run the length of the season.
American was keen to highlight that it will be offering a new service to Athens from Charlotte and that the Philadelphia – Athens seasonal route will run for longer in 2025, but it forgot to mention that Athens will be getting noticeably fewer flights from New York in summer 2025.
Related: American Airlines 777-200ER Business Class review
From Philadelphia (PHL)
- The daily seasonal 787-8 service to Zurich (ZRH) will now only operate until 2 October 2025 instead of to the end of the season.
This isn’t such a bad change as we’re only losing a month of previously scheduled flights, still, this is a negative change to the schedules and in part, offsets the good news that PHL-EDI is being brought back and that the service between Philadelphia and Athens will run for longer than previously planned.
One other thing to note
As well as these changes to several European routes, American Airlines has also been pushing through a significant number of aircraft swaps on routes to Europe, to Asia and to South America, so if you already have a booking made and you’ve selected your seats, I would urge you to check that booking in the next few days as you may no longer be assigned to the seats you originally chose.
Bottom line
Last week, American Airlines was keen for us to focus on the positive news surrounding its new routes and expanded seasons (on select routes), but it failed to mention that it had pushed through several negative changes to its schedules as well.
Anyone with plans to fly to/from Europe for next year should check their bookings carefully as some routes will not be operating on the dates they were originally set to operate and a lot of routes are now being operated by different aircraft.
Related: American Airlines 777-300ER Business Class review (transatlantic)
MIA-MAD is year round and always has been
Good catch. That should say Paris and not Madrid. Now corrected. Thanks.
I have had scheduling changes (and two complete cancellations) on my lat 12 trips(save one that was last minute purchase). This bait and switch, if legal, needs to stop. CICOVUD is over, the pilots are back, they need to start paying us change fees every time that happens. This is way beyond operational necessity and into pathetically poor planning.
American Airlines will never be a world class airline as long as they have these stupid seasonal routes. How can you build up a good route when you fly it six months of the year? There needs to be at least one flight a day from any hub to every European city they fly to, or give it to someone than can do it.
Actually BA will handle them out of LHR
I don’t understand your point. How does whatever BA offers out of LHR have any bearing on what AA offers (or chooses not to offer) on non-stop routes across the Atlantic.