American Launching A321XLR Flights To Porto, Portugal… But Only In Mid-2027

American Airlines has just announced its newest transatlantic route, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise, except for the unusual timing of the announcement…

American will fly from Philadelphia to Porto, Portugal

American has announced that it plans to launch a new daily seasonal flight between Philadelphia (PHL) and Porto (OPO) in the summer of 2027. The airline hasn’t yet announced the schedule for the 3,414-mile service, and this will be American’s second destination in Portugal, after Lisbon (LIS).

American intends to use an Airbus A321XLR for the flight, which is American’s newest aircraft type. This plane is equipped with 155 seats, including 20 business class seats, 12 premium economy seats, and 123 economy seats. As I recently wrote about, business class on this plane isn’t proving to be a huge hit with customers.

On the plus side, the A321XLR enables this kind of growth, thanks to its low capacity and long range. The issue is that American’s network growth thanks to the A321XLR is kind of slow, given that the airline is first placing these on transcon routes, to replace the premium equipped A321Ts, before expanding long haul too much.

American will be the last of the “big three” US carriers to fly to Porto, as it’s a destination already served by United, and Delta is launching service there in the summer of 2026.

Here’s how American’s SVP of Network and Schedule Planning, Brian Znotins, describes this:

“Porto is exactly the type of new market the Airbus A321XLR enables us to serve. While we’ll have even more new routes to share later this year for summer 2027, we’re eager to continue growing our long-haul network that features service to new destinations, including Budapest, Hungary, and Prague that will start this summer.”

The timing of this announcement is a bit unusual

I’m always happy to see American add international destinations, given the extent to which the airline lags competitors with international network, at least outside of Latin America and the Caribbean. So that’s great.

However, the timing here is unusual. Typically, American announces new transatlantic routes in the very late summer or fall before they’re launched, at the earliest. So to see American announce this route well over a year in advance is something I don’t remember seeing before for any other route.

Is this an attempt to generate some positive buzz, at a time when the airline could use it? After all, it’s not like customers will be able to book this flight for several months. Or is there some other explanation that I’m missing?

While this is an unusual approach for American to take, it is something that Delta often does. For example for how long has Delta been announcing that it’ll fly to India, at this point?

Bottom line

American plans to launch a new route to Porto, Portugal, as of the summer of 2027, using the new A321XLR. The schedule for the flight hasn’t yet been published, and for that matter, the flight likely won’t be bookable for months.

It’s nice to see American expanding internationally, and Porto seems like a logical addition. Admittedly American is just following Delta and United, with the former launching flights to Porto as of this year, and the latter already serving the market.

What do you make of American flying to Porto?