The Croatian city of Dubrovnik is quietly emerging as one of the most likely candidates for American Airlines’ next European leisure destination. The city’s airport has confirmed high-level talks with American Airlines and with officials from the airline’s hub at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), and it clearly has an interest in securing additional nonstop links to the United States beyond a single nonstop operation to the New York Area, which is operated by United Airlines. At the same time, Dubrovnik is continuing to post record passenger and tourism numbers, and it has increasingly become one of Europe’s most recognizable coastal cities, primarily thanks to its walled Old Town, cruise traffic, and fame from the Game of Thrones television show.
On the United States side of the matter, 
American Airlines is back in expansion mode across the Atlantic Ocean, with the carrier set to add a string of summer leisure routes from hubs like Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Chicago. The airline is going to be deploying its new Airbus A321XLR on these long-and-thin European markets. Taken together, this creates dynamics that make a compelling case for American Airlines to return to Croatia, either by reviving its Philadelphia-Dubrovnik service or by establishing a new route from Chicago that would effectively connect the Adriatic market to American’s extensive domestic network.
A Deeper Look At American Airlines’ Global Network Strategy
American Airlines’ international strategy today is built around a handful of powerful hubs and a bias towards measured, summer-oriented growth rather than aggressive year-round expansion. Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Miami, Chicago O’Hare, and New York’s JFK Airport do the majority of the heavy lifting for the airline’s long-haul network, feeding routes to Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia with connecting traffic from all across the United States. Across the North Atlantic, American Airlines has shifted from rapid pre-pandemic experimentation to a more cautious opportunistic approach.
The airline has returned to some secondary European markets, like Prague and Budapest, while adding more links to major cities like Athens, Milan, and Zurich, all extending the operating seasons of successful leisure routes instead of adding tons of new stations to its European route map. Many of these flights use the Boeing 787-8, the smallest member of the Dreamliner family, which the airline is increasingly deploying on medium-demand routes from Philadelphia, Chicago, and other major hubs. The wildcard in this mix is the Airbus A321XLR. American Airlines will be the first US carrier to take delivery of the extra-long-range narrowbody, and it will debut the jet internationally on routes from New York to Edinburgh starting in 2026.
With around 155 seats, a range of roughly 4,700 nautical miles, and a premium-heavy layout, the jet is tailored for transatlantic long-and-thin markets that can not support widebody service but still demand a quality business and premium economy product. The airline’s management team has been explicit that the Airbus A321XLR will unlock new city pairs and allow more seasonal experimentation, especially from the carrier’s key East Coast hubs. In short, American Airlines is looking for profitable leisure destinations that fit the carrier’s hub structure and fleet constraints, precisely where Dubrovnik could come in.
What Kind Of Destination Is Dubrovnik?
Dubrovnik is one of Europe’s most distinctive cities. It is a compact medieval walled town of limestone streets and terracotta rooftops set against the Adriatic Sea. The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one celebrated for its Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, monasteries, and palaces, all of which have been painstakingly restored following damage they received during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.
In the last decade, the city has slowly become a pop-culture icon. Dubrovnik doubled as King’s Landing in Game of Thrones, attracting fans to the city walls, fortresses, and harbors used on screen and helping cement the “Pearl of the Adriatic” as a bucket-list stop for US and European tourists alike. Tourism is increasingly booming to the point that Dubrovnik now ranks among the most tourist-intensive cities in Europe, hosting more than 27 visitors per resident and around 1.35 million arrivals and 4.2 million overnight stays in 2024 alone.
Authorities and local businesses are trying to pivot pure volume into more sustainable and higher-spend tourism, rolling out measures such as caps on Old Town apartments and tighter management of wall access in order to prevent overtourism from ruining the fabric of the historic city. For airlines, this mix of global awareness, premium-leaning leisure demand and efforts to smooth out seasonality make Dubrovnik an increasingly attractive Mediterranean destination.
American Airlines Launches First International Airbus A321XLR Route To Edinburgh
Tickets will go on sale on November 3, with flights taking off from March.
Why Might American Airlines Be Interested In Dubrovnik?
There are some hard numbers which back up Dubrovnik’s courtship of American Airlines. Prior to the pandemic, American operated a seasonal route between its Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) hub and the Croatian city. The route recorded nearly 18,000 passengers in 2019, with average load factors exceeding 80% on the route with Boeing 767-300s. The airport’s management is now explicitly targeting a second US-based route on top of United Airlines’ existing service from Newark to Dubrovnik, and it has held talks not only with American Airlines, but also with Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) and City of Chicago officials, according to reports from The Dubrovnik Times.
This clearly points towards Chicago or another major American hub as the most likely candidate, ultimately allowing the airline to leverage a massive domestic network in order to funnel traffic to the Adriatic city. On the macroeconomic side, the number of US visitors to Croatia continues to rise by double digits, and United Airlines is doubling down on the country with new Newark to Split flights from 2026, suggesting the broader market could sustain the presence of more than just one US route.
Croatia’s national tourism strategy explicitly targets long-haul markets in the US as key growth drivers, and it continues to lobby for additional nonstop links. For American Airlines, Dubrovnik checks several strategic boxes, including strong high-season demand, high destination awareness, limited non-alliance competition, and a size profile suited to a Boeing 787-8 or an Airbus A321XLR rather than a larger widebody. As American Airlines is looking for profitable, brand-accretive leisure cities beyond the usual Western European suspects, Dubrovnik is increasingly becoming an obvious candidate.
Is Croatia Served By Other US Airlines?
As of late 2025, the only nonstop scheduled link between Croatia and the United States is United Airlines’ seasonal connection from Newark to Dubrovnik, typically operating daily during the peak summer months. This is the sole direct connection between the two markets, underscoring just how underserved Croatia is given its profile. Starting next year, United Airlines will begin to shift this narrative, when it launches seasonal flights to the city of Split from its Newark hub, again adding connectivity from the New York Area.
This will make United Airlines the only US carrier serving two Croatian airports, both on a summer-only basis aimed squarely at leisure travelers and the Croatian diaspora. Other US airlines have come and gone. Delta Air Lines briefly operated the route from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Dubrovnik in the early 2020s, and American Airlines ran routes from Philadelphia to Dubrovnik, both routes which were discontinued during the pandemic and have yet to return.
Zagreb, despite being the capital and a Star Alliance hub, currently has no nonstop service from any US airline, with passengers instead having to rely on one-stop itineraries through European hubs like Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, London or Amsterdam. In this context, the addition of a new American Airlines route could materially change Croatia’s connectivity to the United States, even if only operated during the peak summer months.
The Route Will Likely Be Served By Low-Capacity Aircraft
Any new route to Dubrovnik operated by American would certainly be classified as a long-and-thin seasonal operation, the exact kind of route that the Airbus A321XLR and the Boeing 787-8 are designed to fly. American Airlines’ new Airbus A321XLR jets seat around 155 passengers while offering a range of around 4,700 nautical miles (8,700 km). The airline has already announced its plans to use these models on routes across the North Atlantic, starting with JFK services to Edinburgh next year. Here are some cabin statistics for the American Airlines Airbus A321XLR, according to airline figures:
|
Cabin: |
Number Of Airbus A321XLR Seats: |
|---|---|
|
Business Class: |
20 |
|
Premium Economy: |
12 |
|
Economy: |
123 |
From East Coast hubs like Philadelphia or JFK, Dubrovnik falls comfortably into the range for Airbus A321XLR service. This smaller aircraft gauge and premium-heavy cabin would help American Airlines manage shoulder-season demand while still appealing to higher-spending leisure travelers and tour operators.
However, American Airlines has also been leaning heavily on the Boeing 787-8 as a transatlantic workhorse, operating dozens of summer routes from destinations like Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, and Miami. The Boeing 787-8 offers more seats and cargo capacity than the Airbus A321XLR, with American having already used it to reopen secondary European routes.
What Is Our Bottom Line?
At the end of the day, Dubrovnik is exactly the kind of leisure market that American Airlines would want to serve using the long-range Airbus A321XLR. The route features premium-oriented seasonal leisure demand, exactly what the carrier is looking to capture.
The fact that no other airlines really serve Croatia (besides a couple of seasonal connections from United) highlights potential market undersaturation. This indicates that market entry could be a strong option for American Airlines.
American’s hub network favors this kind of route, as it can serve the city from a connecting hub like Philadelphia or an origin market like Chicago, giving it versatility as it plans its next moves. We will simply have to wait and see what kind of service the airline decides to operate to Dubrovnik.
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