When American Airlines and US Airways completed their merger less than six years ago, no one figured Philadelphia would earn much status as an international hub since it’s so close to New York’s JFK, writes David Casey for Routes Online.

But American Airlines confirmed plans to increase transatlantic service from Philadelphia to Dubrovnik and Berlin Tegel in summer 2020, as well as shifting its Dallas/Ft. Worth – Reykjavik flights to Philadelphia.

They will also launch a three-weekly service between Philadelphia and Casablanca from June 4, 2020.

Vasu Raja, vice president of network and schedule planning, said Philadelphia offers American the opportunity to “take a more rapid approach to route development” by trying new untested international markets.

“We can connect 95 percent of the United States over Philadelphia and none of our competitors’ operations in New York or elsewhere in the north-east can do anything really remotely close to that,” he said.

“But best of all, we do it at a cost that’s maybe 80 percent of what our competitors are in New York. So what that means is that we can go and try things from Philadelphia on a really low cost base.”

Read more about American Airlines route expansion here.

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