International travel boom fuels airline route expansion

American and United Airlines are ramping up international service, adding new routes and more flights to existing destinations as Delta also expands its global network.

The airlines are betting that travelers will continue spending on overseas trips and exploring less crowded cities.

United will launch several new destinations in 2027, and said it will become the first US airline to launch service to Toulouse and Marseille. It will also fly from San Francisco to Okinawa, Japan. From Newark, it will add flights to Ljubljana, Slovenia; Terceira in the Azores, Portugal; and Valencia between May and June. The airline is also adding Olbia in Sardinia and Catania in Sicily to its network.

American is expanding its international network with seven new routes for next year. It will become the first US airline to fly to Austria with new Philadelphia–Vienna service, while also adding routes to Porto and Reykjavík.

Americans are traveling abroad in record numbers, with airlines seeing growing demand for multi-stop trips, less-visited destinations and longer travel seasons. New routes will also benefit from Airbus’s longer-range A321XLR.