Is American Airlines Going To Add A New Australia Route?

The first routes announced as part of American’s joint venture with Qantas were Qantas flying from San Francisco and Chicago to Bribane. American’s first two new routes were both to New Zealand: Dallas Fort-Worth – Auckland and Los Angeles – Christchurch. American’s Senior Vice President of Network Strategy Vasu Raja told me earlier in the month that he expected American expanded partnership with Alaska Airlines to provide feed at LAX that would support their Christchurch flight.

Yet when the joint venture was first announced I expected that an early route addition would be Dallas Fort-Worth – Brisbane. The head of the Brisbane airport expected it, too, and the CEO of Qantas International predicted their Boeing 787s made the most sense flying Brisbane to LA or Dallas.

Before Qantas began operating an Airbus A380 on the Sydney – Dallas route the flight was on a Boeing 747 and from Dallas to Sydney had to make a stop in Brisbane (but flew non-stop from Sydney to Dallas).


Brisbane Skyline, Credit: Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons

There’s no question Brisbane – Dallas is on the list of routes American Airlines is looking at. I’ve heard this myself. It would be great for me living conveniently to Dallas because Brisbane is a convenient drive out to see my cousin and his new daughter, saving me a connection from Sydney up to Gold Coast.

Now JonNYC is writing that Dallas Fort-Worth – Brisbane is a route to look for.

An American Airlines source though tells me this isn’t on the table for starting service within the next year. They’ve just added South Pacific flying to New Zealand. They’ve made additional long haul flying announcements recently (Seattle – Bangalore). With uncertainty around coronavirus I’m not sure I’d expect to see imminent new long haul route announcements either.

If all goes well I wouldn’t be surprised by an announcement of this route in late 2020, but it also wouldn’t surprise me to see it in 2021 – since Australia routes generally begin in the fall rather than during the northern summer, and that would mean waiting until late 2021 for actual launch.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

Comments

  1. yea his alias screenname/handles were also the ones telling us DFW-AUH was imminent and MIA-NRT was right around the corner.

    but then again this is the airline insane enough to do SEA-BLR just to make a statement so god knows what else they believe will work out.

  2. I have held for some time that one way for American to improve its profile is adding international routes especially if they can tie in with their partners.

  3. “telling is DFW-AUH was imminent ”

    I never said it was in ANY way “imminent” you witless [removed]

  4. Hey Gary. Off topic but I’m guessing you can relate. Have you set up frequent flyer accounts for your new baby? I know still a lap infant, but I’m sure some separate seat flights. The challenge questions are horrendous. Name of best childhood friend? First concert? Favorite movie?

    Kid is 4 weeks old, I’m just trying to get him mileage credit for the flight to Hawaii!

  5. @Hepworth – I have accounts set up for my daughter with every program she’s had opportunity to interact with thus far. Not everyone does challenge questions. You can use answers for yourself, and she can change the security questions when she’s older. Use awardwallet or similar to manage all your family accounts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *