On Wednesday, executives from Emirates and United Airlines unveiled a code-sharing arrangement that they said would “terrify our competitors” and that would include non-stop service to Dubai.
The respective airlines hosted an event on Wednesday at Dulles International Airport near Washington to announce the codeshare, unveiling a pair of planes on the tarmac as cabin crew in Emirates and United uniforms came together on stage.
Starting in November, Emirates customers flying into Chicago, San Francisco and Houston — three of the biggest business hubs in the US — will be able to easily make connections on United flights to and from about 200 cities across the Americas on a single ticket.
At the eight other US airports served by Emirates — Boston’s Logan International, Dallas-Fort Worth, LAX in Los Angeles, Miami International, New York’s JFK, Florida’s Orlando International, Seattle-Tacoma in Washington state and Washington’s Dulles — the airlines will have an interline arrangement in place.
Emirates President Tim Clark and United chief executive Scott Kirby gave speeches touting the partnership as a major moment in “a robust pandemic recovery”.
“We welcome United’s return to Dubai next year, where our hub Dubai essentially becomes a gateway for United to reach Asia, Africa and the Middle East via the combined network of Emirates and flydubai,” Mr Clark said.
He has publicly endorsed an Emirates partnership with a “big three” US airline since mid-2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic first unfolded and shook the industry.
“This will defy the laws of physics when it comes to moving people across the planet,” Mr. Clark told an energized crowd at the hangar event.
“This is going to terrify our competitors”, he added.
Codeshares are business arrangements in which two or more airlines agree to market and publish a particular flight as part of their own schedule or timetable. Only one airline operates the flight, but the other airlines marketing it can add their own unique flight number for marketing purposes and frequent-flyer programmes.
The agreement is likely to help United better compete for customers flying to the Gulf region, after a recently expanded American Airlines deal with Qatar Airways raised the stakes.
American Airlines and Qatar Airways expanded their agreement to an additional 16 countries in June, and American boasted that the expansion would establish it “as the only US carrier to serve the Gulf region, seamlessly connecting through Doha with Qatar Airways”.
For United flyers in the US, the deal may signal easier travel to India, too.
Emirates is the biggest foreign airline serving India, where direct flights from the US have become more complicated recently with Russian airspace closures.
The deal also comes as the US faces a severe pilot shortage.
The sector is lacking around 8,000 pilots, or 11% of the overall workforce, according to management consulting company Oliver Wyman, and by 2025, the shortage might increase to 30,000 pilots.
