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United Will Drop Washington-Dubai Service As Agency Puts Federal Workers On Emirates Flights

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United says it will end its Washington Dulles-Dubai flight next month due to the difficulty of competing with the subsidized Gulf carriers, especially after a federal agency has determined that government employees traveling on the route should fly on Emirates aircraft.

In August, the General Services Administration awarded the 2016 contract for the Washington-Dubai route to JetBlue, which does not actually fly the route but does have a codeshare agreement with Emirates.

As a result, an estimated 15,000 government employees will fly Emirates to Dubai in 2016, United said.

“It is unfortunate that the GSA awarded this route to an airline that has no service to the Middle East and will rely entirely on a subsidized foreign carrier to transport U.S. government employees, military personnel and contractors,” said Steve Morrissey, United regulatory and policy vice president, in a prepared statement.

“We believe this decision violates the intent of the Fly America Act, which expressly limits the U.S. government from procuring commercial airline services directly from a non-U.S. carrier,” Morrissey said. “For the Washington to Dubai route, JetBlue merely serves as a booking agent for Emirates.”

 United formally protested the decision but got nowhere.

In abandoning Dubai service, United follows Delta, which said in October that it will end Atlanta-Dubai service on Feb. 11, 2016. After that, no U.S. carrier will serve Dubai, but the United Arab Emirates will still have frequent service from a dozen U.S. cities on the region’s three subsidized carriers: Emirates, Etihad and Qatar.

United’s last departure from Dulles to Dubai will be on Jan. 23, 2016, while the last Dubai departure will occur on Jan. 25.

“Even though we successfully operated the Washington-Dubai route for the past seven years, the entry of subsidized carriers such as Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways into the Washington, D.C. market has created an imbalance between supply and demand to the United Arab Emirates,” United said in an article published on its online site, “United Hub.”

“As they’ve added subsidized capacity, our Washington-Dubai route has become less profitable,” the carrier said. 

United, American and Delta have asked the Obama administration to begin discussions to ensure that Open Skies treaty agreements are being enforced.

The three carriers allege that the Gulf carriers are “dumping” subsidized capacity onto U.S. routes, providing service at below cost rates, which typically has the effect of eliminating competition.

Just as it has done in this case.