United Airlines and Emirates have formed a new partnership that includes a new United route to Dubai, codeshares on certain destinations and reciprocal loyalty benefits, the carriers announced Wednesday.
Beginning in November, Emirates customers flying into Chicago, Houston and San Francisco will have access to nearly 200 U.S. cities via the United network. At eight other U.S. airports serviced by Emirates—Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Orlando, Seattle and Washington, D.C.-Dulles—the airlines said they will have an interline agreement in place.
In addition, United in March 2023 plans to launch a direct flight between Newark Liberty International Airport and Dubai, where passengers can connect via Emirates’ sister airline Flydubai to more than 100 cities across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Tickets for the new Newark-Dubai route now are on sale. The route will be operated with a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
Customers of both airlines "soon" will be able to book these connecting flights on a single ticket, pending government approval of the codeshare and the new Dubai flight, according to the carriers. Further, the agreement will give Emirates Skywards loyalty members the ability to earn miles when they travel on United-operated flights, and United Mileage Plus members flying on United’s Newark-Dubai flight will be able to earn and redeem miles when connecting on Emirates and Flydubai flights.
The two carriers have been in talks for about two years, United SVP of global network planning and alliances Patrick Quayle told BTN at a Wednesday event in the United hangar at Dulles International Airport.
He added that while there is a “play for business travel” as part of the new agreement, there’s also a “play for the total segment of the cabin, whether business, premium economy or economy. This partnership is about sustainability and about longevity and about having something that is going to be durable. We are going after all segments of traffic. That is the beauty of the Dubai hub—between Emirates and Flydubai, we can hit so many spots in the world that we didn’t have access to before."
U.S. legacy carriers several years ago sparred with Gulf carriers on topics including competition, and officials noted that interpersonal relations helped smooth the development of the partnership between Emirates and United.
Quayle added that there “was a lot of baggage between the U.S. airlines and the Middle Eastern airlines, and so I view my role as head of alliances as kind of Secretary of State,” he said. “It’s about diplomacy, reaching out and working together. The first thing we had to do was have a relationship, then we could have a friendship. Once you have a relationship and friendship, then you can build a partnership, and that is what we announced today.”