American Airlines Revives Plans for First Africa Route: Philadelphia to Casablanca

The launch of Philadelphia-Casablanca, which will be American Airlines’ first destination in Africa, was at the heart of a meeting of the airline last week. "Africa, as you know, is a large continent in full growth, with many different cultures and tourist destinations, business destinations... We have a few African destinations that are on the list of destinations we’re looking at and keeping an eye on, so I hope we’ll go to the continent in the near future. [...]," said Brian Znotins, Vice President of Network Planning at American Airlines.

And to add: "Given what we know about American’s tendency to operate shorter flights and try to fly where others don’t, I expect American’s entry into Africa to be a closer destination, like Casablanca - which also offers connectivity beyond Morocco and is less than 4,000 miles away. This will allow it to use the Airbus A321XLR rather than a more expensive widebody."