American Airlines once had ambitions to launch several long-haul international routes from Seattle. The carrier even had a nonstop route from Seattle to London for a short period. However, the airline soon abandoned all plans to launch international long-haul service from Seattle. There are several reasons why these routes never became a reality.

A Brief History

American Airlines has never had a large long-haul network from the West Coast. While the airline has maintained a modest network, having a strong long-haul network from this region of the United States has never been part of its strategy. American's Los Angeles (LAX) hub has been the mainstay of its West Coast long-haul operations. The airline has operated a variety of intercontinental routes from LAX, but the network is rather small today following a slew of cuts.

American even briefly flew long-haul from San Jose (SJC). This occurred because the airline obtained slots at the airport following its acquisition of AirCal in 1988. American launched service from San Jose to Tokyo Narita (NRT) in 1991 with McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, serving as San Jose's first nonstop link to Asia. Eventually, the DC-10s were replaced with larger MD-11s for the Tokyo service.

In 2001, American opened another long-haul route to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), operated with a Boeing 767-300ER. They also served Taipei, Taiwan (TPE) on the Boeing 777-200ER. Eventually, various world events prompted American Airlines to scale back in San Jose, which saw the end of the Paris and Taipei service. Service to Tokyo held on with the 777-200ER until its end in 2006.

With American Airlines' long-haul chapter from SJC over, the airline consolidated its West Coast long-haul base in Los Angeles, and the rest is history. Today, American Airlines serves destinations like London Heathrow (LHR), Sydney (SYD), and Tokyo Haneda (HND) year-round from Los Angeles. The carrier operates seasonally to Auckland (AKL), but that is the end of American's long-haul flights.

Before the pandemic, American operated service from LAX to Mainland China and Hong Kong (HKG). These routes were all suspended during the pandemic, with LAX-HKG being officially cut later. American also served South America from LAX, serving both São Paulo, Brazil (GRU) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE). Both routes have since been axed.

American's Seattle Strategy

In early 2020, American announced the launch of long-haul flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). This move came shortly after the announcement to strengthen American's relationship with Alaska Airlines. Alaska was about to join the OneWorld alliance at the time.

Plans for American's long-haul ambitions were announced in February 2020. The timing could have been better, considering the world events that would transpire shortly after. Besides this, American revealed plans to serve London Heathrow (LHR), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), and Bengaluru (BLR). London was the only route to begin officially, and it did so in March 2021.

London service operated on the Boeing 777-200ER. Shanghai was also due to operate with this same aircraft type, and Bengaluru was scheduled on the Boeing 787-9. The service to Bengaluru, India (also known as Bangalore) was due to launch in October 2020 but never did so due to the effects of the pandemic. Shanghai was due to start in March 2021 but has been postponed.

As discussed earlier, American Airlines' intentions to expand internationally in Seattle stemmed from its growing relationship with Alaska Airlines. Alaska joined OneWorld in late 2021, and American was ideally looking to grow its OneWorld connectivity from Seattle.

This was a rather risky move as competitor Delta Air Lines had a long-established trans-Pacific hub in Seattle, having done so in 2014. Looking at an ideal long-haul network, Delta has one in Seattle with six destinations currently served and a seventh (Taipei) starting in June 2024.

Setbacks in Seattle

American's services to London and Shanghai were likely proposed from Seattle for business reasons. This was also partly true for Bangalore, thanks to tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft having a major presence in Seattle and India. Bangalore is India's tech hub, so this route seemed somewhat viable.

However, there was a fair bit of demand pre-pandemic between Seattle and Bangalore. Overall, when looking at demand from Bangalore to the United States, most of the demand was from San Francisco, with over 200 passengers a day pre-pandemic. SFO accounted for 17.7% of all U.S. traffic to or from Bangalore.

This huge demand from San Francisco was noticed as Air India and United Airlines launched nonstop routes in the SFO-BLR sector. As of today, Air India continues to operate regularly on this route. However, United suspended its service primarily due to Russian airspace issues and instead opted to add a second daily frequency from Newark (EWR) to Delhi (DEL).

Moving back to American and Seattle, the city would not have enough demand to sustain a nonstop flight to Bengaluru as pre-pandemic, there were only around 50 people a day flying between the two cities. Hence, American wanted to depend highly on its partnership with Alaska Airlines, the largest airline at the airport. Alaska's large domestic network from Seattle could serve as a feeder source for the Bangalore flight.

All these plans were put on hold again and again and again. The global pandemic forced American to postpone both Bangalore and Shanghai services from Seattle, eventually cutting both routes completely. The pandemic was not the only reason these routes were cut before they began. 

The escalated conflict with Russia saw its airspace closed to American carriers. This was bad news as many Asian routes for U.S. carriers largely depended on utilizing Russian airspace for the most efficient routing. With Russia closed off to U.S. airlines, there was no viable alternate route to fly from Seattle to Bangalore, which sealed that route's fate.

As for Shanghai, China held onto its international travel restrictions far longer than most countries. The uncertain nature of travel to China was a key factor in this route's demise. Seattle to London Heathrow was the only one of these three that became a reality. After its inauguration in March 2021, the route lasted around two years. 

In April 2023, American announced it would suspend the route for the Winter 2023/24 season and resume it on March 31, 2024. The carrier immediately removed the route from its inventory and suddenly axed it. Today, OneWorld partner British Airways continues to operate multiple flights from London to Seattle, even having two flights a day at certain points during the week. 

American only serves seven destinations from Seattle, all its various hubs nationwide.

Why Was American Unsuccessful?

Sources largely attribute American's long-haul debacle in Seattle to bad timing. All of its three long-haul routes were announced right before the global pandemic. No one could have predicted the events that transpired later, so it was just bad timing.

Furthermore, American Airlines has never been a big airline in Seattle. As such, it does not have as strong a relationship with companies based in the city as other long-established carriers. This lack of strong corporate connections in Seattle is a big reason why the airline never could see much success on the international front.

However, American was on to something with the proposed Seattle - Bangalore flight. Though the demand in Seattle was not strong enough to support the flight, there is a fair amount of demand from the Seattle-Tacoma area for travel to South Asia. This was primarily why airlines like Emirates entered the Seattle market in 2012. Qatar Airways followed in 2021, and Turkish Airlines followed in 2022.

Delta's growing presence in Seattle was also tough for American to compete with. As mentioned earlier, Delta has been expanding its long-haul network at the airport since 2014, so they are well-established there. That's something not even a partnership with Alaska could help American very much.

American Airlines had a rather interesting "experiment" flying long-haul from Seattle. While the airline had high ambitions for the city, various world and market events ruined the viability of these services.