American Airlines plans to add flights to existing routes from Miami International Airport to three Latin American cities in 2020.
Already MIA’s largest carrier, American announced Monday it would add a third daily flight from Miami to Lima, Peru, in April 2020, a second to Santiago, Chile, and a third to São Paulo, Brazil, in winter of next year. Tickets will go on sale later this year.
The announcement comes just days after Chile-based LATAM, Latin America’s largest airline, ditched its partnership with American in favor of a deal with Delta Airlines. Delta plans to buy a 20 percent stake in LATAM, pending approval from regulators in the United States and Chile. The Chilean Supreme Court struck down a similar deal between American and LATAM in May.
LATAM was previously part of American’s OneWorld code sharing networking, meaning American would book its customers on LATAM flights from Miami to many Latin American cities. Now American will be flying those passengers itself, starting with the added flights to Lima, Santiago and São Paulo next year.
“We’re really excited for this especially in the 30th anniversary of our Miami hub,” said Vasu Raja, American’s vice president of network and schedule planning. “Even though it’s unfortunate that the joint venture wasn’t to be, we are looking forward to offering the biggest and the best network to all our customers. “
American Airlines currently offers more nonstop flights from MIA to Latin America than any other airline with flights to 19 of the 26 South American cities, all 10 Central American cities, four out of five Mexican cities, and all destinations in the Caribbean served from MIA, according to Greg Chin, a spokesperson for MIA.
In addition to the MIA flights, American announced it plans to add a new daily Boston to London route starting in March 2020, and lengthen its seasonal service from New York to Rome, Dallas to Dublin, and Chicago to Barcelona in 2020. (https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article235621262.html)
