American Airlines Will Start Flying to Morocco, Poland and Tel Aviv Next Summer

Alison Fox

On Thursday, American Airlines announced its plans for several new routes in 2020. Those routes, the airline said, will include flights to Poland, Morocco, Tel Aviv, and its first-ever flights to Africa.

American Airlines will become the first U.S. airline to offer nonstop service to Casablanca when it starts flying from Philadelphia in June 2020. The flights will be available between Philadelphia and the Moroccan city three times a week. For the service, American is teaming up with Royal Air Maroc.

"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," Vasu Raja, American's vice president of network and schedule planning, said in a statement. "This is only the beginning."

In September 2020, American will also bring back its service to Tel Aviv, flying from its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth to the Israeli city three times each week. According to the airline, this will make it easier to get from tech cities like Austin and San Jose to Tel Aviv, which is known for its booming tech industry.

The Tel Aviv flights follow a four-year absence from the city for American, which ended the service in 2015 because the route wasn't profitable, Raja told USA Today.

Starting in May 2020, the airline will also add flights from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Krakow, Budapest, and Prague. In doing so, it will be the only U.S. airline to offer service to these cities from O'Hare, according to American. The move will expand American's service to Eastern Europe, building on the flights they started offering to Budapest and Prague from Philadelphia last year.

"There's strong local demand to Eastern Europe in Chicago, and it's important that we provide more service for our customers to visit family and friends or explore a new part of the world," Raja said. "Chicago has been a great example of trying new things with our network, like seasonal service to Athens that launched earlier this year, and when customers take advantage, it allows us the opportunity to keep growing."

All of these new flights will be available to book starting Aug. 12, except for Tel Aviv, which will be available starting Oct. 10.

There is one European route, however, that American is not bringing back for next summer. American announced it's canceling its service to Bologna, Italy because it found travelers preferred Florence as a destination to fly into, according to USA Today.

Here is a full list of the new routes so you can start planning your next vacation:

  • Nonstop service between Chicago (ORD) and Krakow (KRK) from May 7 through Oct. 23, five times per week on a Boeing 787-8

  • Nonstop service between Chicago (ORD) and Budapest (BUD) from May 7 through Oct. 24, four times per week on a Boeing 787-8

  • Nonstop service from Chicago (ORD) to Prague (PRG) from May 8 through Oct. 24, five times per week on a Boeing 787-8

  • Nonstop service between Philadelphia (PHL) and Casablanca, Morocco (CMN) starting June 4, three times per week on a Boeing 757

  • Nonstop service between Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) starting Sept. 9, three times per week on a Boeing 787-9