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American Airlines will move three of its London flights from Gatwick Airport to Heathrow Airport in the coming weeks as part of the
Open Skies agreement between the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) which takes effect March 30.
American
had already confirmed that it will move one of its two daily round trips between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and London Gatwick, as
well as its daily round trip between Raleigh/Durham (RDU) and Gatwick, to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on March 30.
In addition, American will be moving its second daily round trip between DFW and Gatwick to Heathrow on April 13. American recently
obtained additional take-off and landing slots at Heathrow to make that move possible. This will result in the closure of American’s Gatwick
operations after 26 years of service. All of American’s employees at Gatwick have been offered jobs at the airline’s other London locations.
“We want to strengthen our competitive position within the new ‘Open Skies’ regime, so it makes sense to focus our efforts in London at
Heathrow,” said Henry Joyner, American’s Senior Vice President – Planning. “These changes do not impact the total number of American
flights to and from London. We’ll operate up to 18 daily departures to Heathrow this summer from seven U.S. airports.”
American’s London Heathrow gateway cities in the U.S. will be: New York (JFK), Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles,
and Raleigh/Durham.
In addition, while not directly related to the new “Open Skies” agreement, American will continue to serve London Stansted Airport from
New York’s JFK Airport. American will add a second daily Stansted round trip beginning
August 1.
The new “Open Skies” agreement also allows airlines to add new cities within Europe to codeshare relationships with other airlines.
Effective April 13 American intends to add 12 new destinations by expanding its existing codeshare agreement with Spain’s Iberia Airlines,
one of its oneworld Alliance partners. Among the 12 new destinations are Valencia, Seville, Gran Canaria, Brussels, and Lisbon. American
flies nonstop between its Miami hub and Madrid, where passengers will be able to easily connect to the new destinations.
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