American Airlines Teases 5 New Routes: Here’s Where AA Will Start Flying Next

American Airlines posted on Instagram with a simple challenge: “Can you guess these 5 cities?”

Each image is a moody travel shot, and each one has 3 small dashes stamped across it, a hint that you’re supposed to figure out a 3-letter airport code.

When an airline turns route planning into a guessing game, it usually means new flights are coming. We’ve done the work for you to figure out where American might be headed.

The 5 Cities American Airlines We Think Is Teasing

American Airlines didn’t make it hard to guess the 5 cities in this Instagram post.

The first shot is a skyline with a single glass tower against a pink Andean sunset. That’s the Gran Torre in Santiago (SCL), Chile, the launchpad for Chilean wine country, the Atacama Desert, and Patagonia.

Photo No. 2 is unmistakable: The colorful townhouses and wooden boats of Nyhavn harbor put us in Copenhagen (CPH), Denmark, home to Tivoli Gardens and one of the best food scenes in Europe.

The third image, a palace framed by chestnut trees with someone walking a small dog, is Nymphenburg Palace in Munich (MUC), Germany. Munich is your jumping-off point for Bavaria, the Alps, and, of course, Oktoberfest.

Next is a cliffside stack of pastel houses glowing at dusk. That’s Positano on the Amalfi Coast, and since Positano has no airport of its own, the code has to be Naples (NAP), Italy, your gateway to the coast, Pompeii, and the birthplace of pizza.

The fifth and final photo shows the Basílica del Voto Nacional towering over a valley of white rooftops. That’s Quito (UIO), Ecuador, a high-altitude Andean capital with a UNESCO-listed old town and easy access onward to the Galápagos.

Existing Service From the US to These Cities

If American does launch these routes, it won’t have the routes to itself. Here’s who’s flying to each airport from the U.S. today:

Look down that column on the right and see a pattern: There’s plenty of competition, but almost none of it comes from a Oneworld airline.

Lufthansa, United, and Avianca are in Star Alliance, SAS and Delta are in SkyTeam, and LATAM isn’t in an alliance but is partially owned by Delta. In most of these markets, American is the only Oneworld carrier flying at all, and it’s doing so from just 1 or 2 gateways.

That thin coverage is likely the whole point: These are places where American’s own alliance can’t feed it connecting traffic, so the airline has a good opportunity to add its own service from a new hub, whether that’s something like Philadelphia to Munich, Dallas to Quito, or a beefed-up Copenhagen operation.

Final Thoughts

American hasn’t confirmed anything yet, so treat these as educated guesses rather than a published schedule. But the mix of leisure-heavy destinations and light Oneworld competition lines up with exactly the kind of routes American has been chasing lately.

If you’ve had Positano, Atacama, or a Bavarian beer hall on your list, keep an eye on American’s next route announcement. This Instagram post may be your early warning.