Last week American Airlines announced the end of their codeshare agreement with Santiago, Chile-based LATAM, which has now joined forces with Delta Air Lines. In response, American intends to solidify their leadership position in Miami by adding increased service.
Last Thursday, Delta Air Lines made news by announcing they would be acquiring a 20% stake in LATAM for $1.9B, with the intention of becoming the U.S. leader in North American – Latin American service. Not to be outmaneuvered, in a company press release Monday morning, American Airlines announced they would be increasing service from Miami to Lima, Peru (LIM), Santiago, Chile (SCL), and São Paulo, Brazil (GRU). Additional Lima service will begin on April 7th with increased frequency to Santiago and São Paulo starting in the winter of 2020. The increased Lima service will be operated with a Boeing 757 and the Santiago and São Paulo routes with Boeing 777-200’s. In the announcement, Vasu Raja, American’s Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning stated,
“American’s leading position in Miami is something we’re incredibly proud of and committed to maintaining. We have so many possibilities from our Latin American gateway and are excited for the opportunity to use our domestic strength to enhance our international network. We’ll continue to grow, compete and thrive in a region of the world where we have a long history and a bright future.”
New Boston Service
American also announced new non-stop service from Boston-Logan (BOS) to London-Heathrow (LHR) which will begin next year, increasing the number of daily flights on the route operated by American and OneWorld partner British Airways to five. The BOS-LHR route will be operated with a Boeing 777-200, which will include 37 Flagship Business and 24 Premium Economy seats. Additionally, LEVEL (a subsidiary of the International Airline Group) will launch three weekly nonstop flights from Boston to Paris-Orly (ORY), starting March 31, 2020. The International Airline Group (IAG) also owns British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling.
Source: American Airlines