Columbus, Nashville and Phoenix are among the US cities winning new transatlantic routes next summer, courtesy of Air France, American, Lufthansa, United and others. British Airways, the biggest European carrier across the Atlantic, isn't joining that land grab — but it is pumping more seats into four American cities it already serves.

Speaking at the Routes World conference in Frankfurt, BA's chief planning and strategy officer Neil Chernoff framed it as a trade-off: grow new cities, or deepen the ones you have. For summer 2027, the airline has picked the second path at Heathrow. Cincinnati goes daily, up from six flights a week. Las Vegas moves to twice daily. San Francisco gains a third daily flight. St. Louis, only added in April, steps up from four weekly flights to a daily service.

There's a wider family calculation too. BA's parent group IAG includes Aer Lingus and Iberia, and the trio coordinate their transatlantic growth. Aer Lingus is actually contracting, dropping Las Vegas, Denver and Minneapolis to cut costs, while Iberia has held off announcing new US destinations for 2027. Closer to home, BA shares a joint venture with American Airlines — plus Iberia and Finnair — that lets them coordinate schedules and fares across the Atlantic, which is why cities like Charlotte and Raleigh are covered by American rather than BA itself.

Don't read the quiet summer as the end of expansion. Chernoff said BA sees "opportunities in some secondary markets", with population size a key filter. Among the 40 largest US metros without BA service today: Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and San Antonio. The airline currently flies to 27 US cities — more than any European rival — and Chernoff made clear it intends to keep that lead, explicitly naming Icelandair as a competitor it doesn't want ceding ground to.

One practical constraint shapes what comes next: aircraft. BA likes to launch smaller cities with its smallest long-haul jet, the Boeing 787-8, of which it has just 12 and no more on order. The workaround is recycling — as established routes graduate to bigger 787-9s and 777s, the little Dreamliners free up for new destinations. Each 787-8 carries 31 business class suites, 37 premium economy seats and 136 in economy.

Why should a traveller care? If you're flying from Cincinnati, Las Vegas, St. Louis or San Francisco to London, your options and schedule flexibility improve from summer 2027 — and for St. Louis and Cincinnati, still-fresh routes getting more frequency is a good sign they're sticking around. And if your city is on the no-BA list, watch this space: Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City or San Antonio could plausibly appear on the route map in the next few rounds of announcements.