Jan. 26, 2018

Airline adds seasonal routes to Budapest, Reykjavik, Prague and Venice

American Airlines is adding four new destinations to its international network for summer 2018. In order to provide even more access from Europe to the U.S. and beyond, the airline is introducing service from Philadelphia (PHL) to Budapest, Hungary (BUD), and Prague, Czech Republic (PRG); Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Venice, Italy (VCE); and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Reykjavik, Iceland (KEF).

As the second largest operator of scheduled widebody and freighter aircraft between the U.S. and Europe, American will operate a total of 427 flights per week to 58 destinations.

The PHL-BUD, PHL-PRG and ORD-VCE routes commence on May 4. Service to KEF from DFW will begin on June 7.

The three European capital cities—Budapest, Prague and Reykjavik—are all new to the American network. Venice is already connected to the U.S. via service to PHL.

The Budapest market presents many opportunities for cargo customers with automotive, engineering and lighting products, alongside pharmaceuticals destined for the U.S. Northeast. Forwarders in Prague and across the Czech Republic are likely to ship similar products, along with vinyl records. Budapest and Prague will both be served using Boeing 767-300 equipment.

The Venice flights offer additional opportunities to shippers and agents moving goods that require American's ExpediteTC service, as well as the more traditional sunglasses and fashion goods. Italian customers supporting this service will be served on the widebody, fuel-efficient Boeing 787-8.

The service to Reykjavik will operate using a Boeing 757 aircraft and is expected to mainly carry scientific equipment and fish products, which are common Icelandic exports.

"Following the successful expansion of our European network last year, we are very pleased to be able to offer our cargo services to even more new cities in 2018,” said Tristan Koch, American's regional managing director – Europe, Middle East and Africa. “We have always been committed to providing service to and from the widest possible number of destinations in order to provide the most points of access into our worldwide system. To that end, we will also be expanding our European trucking network this summer, so other offline destinations can feed into our growing network."