Skift Travel News Blog

United Airlines and Emirates appear poised to unveil a wide-ranging new partnership that could see the two global airlines offer travelers significantly more flight options.

The carriers sent invites Tuesday for a joint “special event” in Washington, D.C., on September 14. The invites came hours after The Air Current reported that United and Emirates were near a new codeshare partnership. Such a pact would allow each airline to sell tickets on certain flights operated by the other that would give travelers broad connectivity across the airlines’ respective route networks. United would likely gain new markets in Africa, the Middle East, and India, and Emirates significantly more access to the U.S. market.

A partnership would represent a dramatic warming of relations between United and Emirates. In 2015, United, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines launched an all-out campaign to limit the growth of the Gulf carriers, including Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, to the U.S. arguing that they were essentially dumping capacity in the market with the financial backing of their respective governments. As The Air Current reported Tuesday, in 2017 United’s then-CEO Oscar Munoz called the Gulf airlines “international branding vehicles” for the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

But tensions have eased in recent years. American and Qatar Airways unveiled a broad partnership in 2020 that saw the former add flights to Doha — its first ever nonstop the Gulf — in June. If the United-Emirates pact comes to pass, only Delta would be left without a partner in the Gulf.

For now, we have to wait until September 14 to find out what United and Emirates are up too.

Emirates is appealing to travelers’ heartstrings in an effort to avoid implementing schedule cuts at London Heathrow that are sought by the airport operator to avoid further operational meltdowns this summer.

“Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers,” the Dubai-based airline said Thursday. “However, re-booking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines.”

“We reject these demands,” Emirates went on to say in response to Heathrow’s request to cut capacity and stop selling seats on its flights to the airport through September 11. It called the request as “unreasonable and unacceptable” and “with blatant disregard for consumers.”

Heathrow has been dogged by the operational issues that plague European air travel this summer. Images of piles of lost luggage have grabbed headlines, while travelers have also faced long queues, as well as flight delays and cancellations that are mostly attributed to staffing shortfalls. The airport’s largest airline, British Airways, has cut its Heathrow capacity by 13 percent from pre-summer plans through October.

Emirates, for its part, said that its ground handling provider at Heathrow, Dnata, is fully staffed.

What happens next between Emirates and Heathrow is unclear. The airline said the airport threatened “legal action” if it did not comply with the request to reduce seats and stop sales. However, a court case could take some time to reach a conclusion, potentially longer than the caps are in place. In addition, slots — or the right for an airline to land or takeoff at an airport — at Heathrow are managed by Airport Coordination Limited, and not by the airport itself.