United Airlines and Emirates to announce codeshare agreement – sources | Photo credits: American Airlines
by David Shepardson and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Aug 30 (Reuters) – United Airlines and Emirates are expected to announce a codeshare agreement in the coming weeks, allowing the two companies to expand their respective flight offerings, two sources told Reuters.
United on Tuesday sent an invitation to journalists for a “special event” scheduled for September 14 in Washington and dubbed “Come fly with us” (“Come fly with us”), in the presence of its general manager, Scott Kirby, and the president of the Dubai company, Tim Clark.
The specialized publication Air Current was the first to report on this probable announcement.
United did not provide details. An Emirates spokesman confirmed the airlines would make a “joint announcement” on September 14 in Washington but declined to elaborate.
Once the regulatory authorizations have been obtained, code sharing, by which commercial flights are identified, would allow the two companies to offer their customers destinations that they do not currently serve.
For the American United, this would in particular attract customers accustomed to flights to the Gulf region.
American Airlines and Qatar Airways announced in June a deepening of their strategic alliance created in early 2020 via a new codeshare involving 16 additional countries. (Report David Shepardson in Washington and Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Sophie Louet)