Says U.S. Government Is Allowing Subsidized Flight By Gulf Carriers

United Airlines is discontinuing its Dulles to Dubai route on January 23 of 2016.

The carrier announced on its blog that recent expansion by carriers such as Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways into the D.C. market has "created an imbalance between supply and demand to the United Arab Emirates. As they’ve added subsidized capacity, our Washington-Dubai route has become less profitable."

According to United, the GSA in August announced that it has awarded a government contract to JetBlue to operate the route. JetBlue is a codeshare partner with Emirates. United formally protested the decision, but that protest was denied.

In the blog post, United said that JetBlue has no service to the Middle East and no presence in the region. Its codeshare partner, Emirates, will be solely operating this route and will be carrying an estimated 15,000 U.S. government employees, including active duty military personnel, whose official travel is funded by U.S. taxpayers.

“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 Regulatory and Policy VP Steve Morrissey. “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. For the Washington to Dubai route, JetBlue merely serves as a booking agent for Emirates.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.united.com