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

"I can’t imagine New York to Birmingham or Edinburgh are really big enough markets"

huh?

these flights will be packed every day.

Woohoo. Competition at last from the United 757-200 service on the BHX-NYC run.

BHX to JFK (according to AA communication on future) is a great addition, united are the only airline our of BHX to fly to the US, and to be honest, old plane, poor service.

People are getting fed up of going through London to the US, the only real problem is the APD on UK outbound is so punishing. So bad in fact my US trip next week is via AMS.

Really is a good route, BHX is growing and to be honest, I would now very much connect from BHX into NYC and onwards - especially with a fresh Business Class onboard.

Choosing JFK is a very smart choice, because it gives UAL at EWR, who currently has a monopoly on NYC-BHX/EDI routes, a massive run for its money. Though it might be surprising, it seems that AA wants to use JFK, like UAL uses EWR, even though PHL would be a better choice.

@Lantean Edinburgh is a pretty city but it's seasonal destination at best. As for Birmingham - It's a hole! I'm sure DP has his reasons for putting these flights on but I don't see anything to back up your assertion that they'll be "packed every day" - I'd be interested to know what you're basing this on.

Well, from a personal perspective I'm delighted about Birmingham - I live ten minutes away and at the moment it isn't served by Oneworld so it would be great for using Avios... just a shame that it isn't coming earlier, as I'd have loved to use it in March 2015

Are the new Edinburgh & Birmingham flights seasonal or year-round? Also, is there really only an hour turnaround on the JFK-Edinburgh route? That doesn't seem right.

I'm excited to have new options for getting to the UK. It's so easy to get around the country by train that these airports are a great alternative to dealing with Heathrow or Gatwick, especially if you're heading somewhere outside of London. Plus, award space is usually much easier to come by on the Philadelphia to Manchester route compared to either of the London airports, so I'd imagine it would be similar for these.

@ RDP -- Well, except in business class United's 757s blow away American's 757s, so they don't really have a competitive product.

I'm not sure how the JFK growth strategy will work. It's simply not a good airport for connecting passengers, in terms of operational reliability, space, etc.

@ Lantean -- It's 2014. The question isn't whether you can fill a flight, it's whether you can fill a flight with good yields. Emirates could fill an A380 flight between Tampa and Dubai, it doesn't mean the yields are there.

@SmarterBlog

Birmingham might be a hole, but travelling down the M6/M1 and round the M25 in rush hour to get to a hole of an airport (LHR) is far less appealing. The other problem is the LHR oubound flights are now earlier than last year - for someone to get from the Birmingham area, park off site at LHR and check in in time - well that would be a 4-5hrs before departure - that departure time that was 11:00am last year...which is now 9:00am this year.

I can leave my house by Taxi (within business expense allowance unlike LHR) and be in BHX in 35 minutes.

Sounds great to me 🙂

@ Everybody Hates A Tourist -- Whoops, typo. It's a two hour turn.

AA's strategy at JFK seems a bit bifurcated.

While you suggest, "they’re trying to serve mostly “local” passengers, while most passengers connecting to Europe would route through Philadelphia" they are pretty clearly trying to serve other markets and bring passengers from around the country to New York, rather than primarily serving New Yorkers. That's why you don't see them offering service in competitive business markets with significant service by other airlines to their own hubs.

On the other hand AA has plenty of corporate contracts especially for the transatlantic flights. And they have a strong joint venture partner with local customer base in the UK.

So perhaps the strategy here is to bring UK passengers from outside metro London to New York, with additional demand fro the local New York market and some connecting traffic?

I'd guess that New York is a much bigger destination for the local UK folks than Philadelphia is!

The only question then is why do the flight with the AA brand rather than the BA one? And it may be about right-sized aircraft.

Lucky!!!!

So excited! I know exactly my strategy for getting tickets on one of the routes, but what time to you think the will launch on Nov. 2? 12:00 AM EST, or 12:00 PST?

Thanks for notifying us!

This new flight will almost certainly come at the expense of one of US Airways’ Frankfurt frequencies out of Charlotte or Philadelphia.- Both Carlotte's and Philadelphia's 2nd daily flights to Frankfurt have been cut, ie. only one flight to FRA on US/AA from CLT and FRA.

@ Ted -- It's anyone's guess. When a new flight is loaded it's not necessarily at midnight, as it's a manual process. Could be midday or any other time. I'll be sure to post as soon as I see it.

Please to enjoy this classic 1981 video about Birmingham, narrated by none other than Kojak himself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHVO1eSMFc

On a different matter, not that I am an expert on such matters, but I can't understand why they would see NYC as more for serving local passengers. As a major global hub for commerce and such, it should surely provide for lots of high-yield passengers from across the globe, no? I can;t imagine someone who wants to come to NYC and having a choice between flying via Philly on AA, or flying direct on some other airline would choose the former...

Maybe my memory is failing me, but I'm quite sure American used to fly ORD-BHX seasonally on the 767-200 back in the late 90s/early 2000s?

Looks like Lufthansa will have some competition now on the MIA-FRA route. As an AAdvantage Platinum, I may give the new American flight a spin next summer.

@speedski

I have no doubt that the Birmingham route has its merits for a number of people (you seem to be a prime candidate and I'm genuinely happy you get to avoid that horrendous trip to catch a flight) but my point was more aimed at the first comment claiming that the flights would be "packed every day. I don't see that happening. Like Lucky I find the choice of route strange....but then I'm not privy to AA's number crunchers.

Having more options to/from UK outside of LHR is always great, but what is the product on the AA B757 like? IIRC it is old, old and decrepit...Not so keen on that.

I don't think packed every day is that far of a stretch - the United route to EWR has been going over 17 years...it can't have that bad a yield...

Coming from the west coast, connecting through JFK or PHL to Europe might be options but MIA is definitely not. Not only is MIA quite a ways "out of the way" the flight leaves before most/any west coast flights can even get to MIA. The lack of connection options beyond FRA also makes the flight somewhat useless for connections westbound or eastbound connections.

I am glad AA is expanding their European routes, it seems like they had a lot more 10 years ago - but I'd like to see them add some European routes from ORD and not just through the UK. I love AA and Oneworld but the UK/BA taxes and surcharges are ridiculous and making connections in the atlantic seaboard cities late in the afternoon is not particularly attractive, especially if you are flying paid premium and it means spending the first half of the trip in domestic first on a 737.

MIA-FRA -- will it be the new 763, or the old (sloping business class seat) 763?
Also, when is it starting, and will award bookings become available on the first day that the route becomes available for general booking (what has been your experience in the past)?
Thanks.

@ Stephan -- Yep, it's an angled seat. Not all that great.

EDI route will be packed. Ben has clearly no idea what he's talking about. Some even cursory research into the growth of EDI will reveal it would make sense to keep both JFK and PHL routes. Why comment on things you have no idea on?

@ kr -- We don't know yet, we'll find out when they load the seatmap. I wouldn't be surprised if it is the new product, since most 767s will be reconfigured by then. Generally IF they release award space, they do so almost immediately. That being said, American is really stingy with award space, so I wouldn't count on it.

I can see MIA-FRA working well for AA especially during the winter in Germany, especially with connections to the tropical Caribbean. As well as for connections between Germany and South America.

But I wonder if Air Berlin welcomes additional competition on Germany-MIA since they fly DUS-MIA...

@DL great video! It's changed a little since then though... 😀

Perhaps those who knock Birmingham either haven't been here recently, or went to one industrial area without realising the size of the city - 1.1million - that's more than 2 1/2 Manchesters! The Birmingham of 2014 is a fantastic vibrant City, remarkably leafy - more parks than any other European City. If you only ever see it from the M6, you're missing out!
The Greater Birmingham area accounts for nearly half of all UK exports to China.
Don't take my word for it - see what the New York Times has to say (see below).
I'm not a Brummie - I chose to live here because of access to good schools, culture and recreational facilities, and lots of Michelin starred restaurants. So much history too - but modern history. It wasn't called the City of 1000 trades for nothing.

Anyway, the point is, it's a great City to visit, and there are also millions of people here who'd rather not go to Heathrow or Manchester every time they fancy a weekend in the Big Apple.

As regards the United flights to NYC, they've been running continuously from BHX for about 15 years, and the flights are always full. The demand is here and I welcome the opportunity to fly on a one world operator next summer. Far preferable to driving 2hrs south. Welcome to BHX American Airlines!

Some reading
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/forget-london-visit-birmingham-new-york-magazine-tells-readers-that-englands-second-city-outdoes-the-capital-8916466.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parks_and_open_spaces_in_Birmingham
http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2014-10-28/birmingham-business-leaders-head-to-china-summit/

Based upon the seat map the MIA-FRA route is using the old 763 configuration - ugh.