American Airlines gains Heathrow slot pair from Finnair

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has entered into a slot swap agreement with its Oneworld and transatlantic JBA partner Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) covering a daily slot-pair at London Heathrow. The American carrier will use the newly acquired slots to operate daily from Seattle Tacoma Int’l using B777-200(ER)s, starting in the Summer 2021 season. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, American Airlines currently operates a single daily route to London Heathrow – from Dallas/Fort Worth using B777-300(ER)s. It also operates cargo-only scheduled flights to the British gateway from Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles Int’l. In January, the airline hopes to restart passenger services to Heathrow from Charlotte Int’l, Chicago O’Hare, and New York JFK, followed by flights from Miami Int’l in February, and Boston, passenger flights from Los Angeles, Philadelphia Int’l, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Raleigh/Durham, and Seattle at the end of March 2021. In turn, Finnair currently operates from Helsinki Vantaa to Heathrow 2x daily but will increase the frequency to 3x daily (instead of the pre-COVID 4x daily) as of the end of March 2021.