American Airlines Adds Australia, Brazil Routes

DALLAS - Brisbane (BNE), one of the fastest-growing cities in Australia and the country's third-largest, will receive new seasonal service from a second US carrier, American Airlines (AA), later this year.

Starting October 27, 2024, AA will provide daily service from its Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) mega hub to BNE using American’s new Boeing 787-9. The plane will have 30 Flagship Business Suites, 21 Premium Economy, and 234 Economy seats (including Main Cabin Extra seating) and will become the airline's longest route in its network at 8,303sm (13,358km). Brisbane will become the second Australian city AA serves after Sydney (via Los Angeles).

American has a solid joint venture with fellow Oneworld alliance founding member Qantas (QF), which is a critical factor in helping to make the route economically feasible. QF operates in a sizable number of markets from BNE, where travelers can transfer to other destinations throughout Australia and the South Pacific.

Alternatively, QF travelers from Brisbane will have a one-stop option to over 200 destinations in North America through DFW. The only other service to Brisbane by a US carrier is United Airlines (UA), which has flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Boeing 787-9 will have 51 Flagship Suite® seats — 21 more than the current Boeing 787-9 that American has in its fleet. Photo: American Airlines

Expansion in Brazil

The highlight of the AA press release was the new entry into the Brisbane market. However, AA also revealed a new flight to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) starting the same day as Brisbane - October 27. It will also be a seasonal, daily service, but AA will utilize its Boeing 787-8 with 234 seats. The DFW flight will complement existing service to GIG from Miami (MIA) and New York-JFK (the latter will also see an increase in daily flights starting the same day as the DFW flight).

American remains the dominant carrier of the US Big Three airlines in the GIG market. For the last 12 months through January 2024, the airline offered 475 flights and 121,485 seats between JFK and MIA to GIG, according to Cirium Diio data. This bests its closest competitor, UA, by more than 100 flights for the same period. The additional flights from DFW and JFK for the northern hemisphere winter season will further strengthen their position in the market.

American Airlines N804AN Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Photo: Andrew Henderson/Airways

Additional DFW Service

American is also bringing back seasonal service from DFW to Kona, starting October 27, and a second daily service from DFW to Kahului (Maui), which will run for the holiday season, from December 19, 2024, to January 6, 2025. Both Hawaii flights will operate using the Boeing 787-8. Dallas-Ft. Worth will see an additional boost in new service with flights to Veracruz, Mexico (VER) beginning June 12.

American Eagle will operate the VER flights with the Embraer 175. Finally, there will be additional mainline service to existing Caribbean routes out of DFW: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands will see an extra flight on Saturdays starting June 8.