Why American Airlines Doesn’t Fly To Africa

American Airlines, the world’s largest airline by fleet size, flies to over 350 destinations worldwide with a mainline fleet of 950+ aircraft. Apart from major international routes, the carrier is known to be very selective in route planning. With its tendency to operate where many others don’t, American Airlines had planned its first route to Africa, connecting its Philadelphia hub to the African continent in 2019.

The service between Philadelphia and Casablanca in Morocco was set to “take off” in June 2020, but Covid-19 disruptions killed the route. The three-times-weekly service was planned to be operated using the carrier’s Boeing 757 aircraft.

American Airlines doesn’t fly to Africa

View From The Wing’s blog suggests that American Airlines has a tendency to operate short flights and aim to fly to places where others generally don’t. American Airlines’ planned entry into Africa before the pandemic was primarily based on Royal Air Maroc’s entry into the oneworld alliance. The Moroccan national carrier and the largest airline in the country joined the prestigious oneworld alliance in April 2020.

Photo: Ritu Manoj Jethani | Shutterstock

Flight Global reported that the Vice President of Network and Schedule Planning at American Airlines, Vasu Raja, commented that Royal Air Maroc’s entry to the oneworld alliance “will allow for even more connections further into Africa to places like Marrakech, Lagos, and Accra”.

“Our customers and team members have been asking when we’re going to start service to Africa, and I couldn’t be more pleased to make this announcement for service beginning in 2020.”

“This is the first step for us developing an Africa network.”

Would it ever materialize?

The pandemic hindered American Airlines’ plan to operate three weekly flights to Casablanca. Despite the airline’s return to normal operations in 2021 and beyond, the Casablanca flights never materialized. The carrier’s Boeing 757s planned for deployment to Casablanca have long been retired.

Photo: Don Mammoser | Shutterstock

American currently operates flights to Casablance under a codeshare agreement with Iberia, through Madrid, Spain. American Airlines’ flight connects Philadelphia to Madrid on the carrier’s Boeing 787-8 product. The next leg to Casablanca (CMH) is operated by Air Nostrum for Iberia. An example of the route on a random day in November is shown here.

• PHL – MAD: AA 740
• American Airlines Boeing 787
• Departs at 21:05
• Arrives at 09:55
• Duration: 6 hours 50 minutes

• MAD – CMN: AA 8693
• Air Nostrum (for Iberia) Canadair CRJ Regional Jet
• Departs at 11:10
• Arrives at 13:05
• Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes

As View From The Wing suggested, American Airlines is in a great position to establish direct flights to Africa, beginning with Casablanca. The city offers connectivity beyond Morocco, including the likes of Cairo and Lagos. With American Airlines’ forthcoming Airbus A321XLRs that offer a range of over 4,000 miles, African destinations should be on the cards.

Notably, destinations like Cairo and Lagos are too far for the A321XLR range, which would drive the use of widebody jets like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Photo: Soos Jozsef | Shutterstock

In Fall 2021, the Vice President of Network Planning, Brian Znotins, expressed his excitement about the possibility of reinstating preparations to fly to Africa by saying,

“For Africa, as you know, big growing continent, a lot of different cultures and tourist type destinations, business destinations…We do have some African destinations that are in the list of things that we look at and we keep an eye on so I’m hopeful we get to the continent in the near future, but it always is shifting and changing.”

Other major airlines to Africa

The other two major airlines in the US, Delta and United, have flights to select cities in Africa. Delta Air Lines flies to Cape Town, Johanesburg, Dakar, Lagos, and Accra. On many flights to Africa, the airline operates its Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

Photo: Jarek Kilian | Shutterstock

In March, United Airlines announced that it will fly to five cities in Africa from its hubs in Newark and Washington Dulles. The carrier had no flights to the continent between July 2016 and November 2019.

The United’s routes include those operated previously as well as new routes. A brief table of the routes is shown here.