WASHINGTON: United Airlines Holdings Inc and Dubai-based Emirates have agreed to an alliance enabling them to sell tickets on each other’s flights, a reversal of years of discord between the two global carriers.

The codeshare agreement will expand the international presence of both companies, United chief executive officer Scott Kirby said Wednesday at Dulles International Airport near Washington.

Airlines use such accords to grow their networks at little extra cost.

The partnership highlights a renewed focus by carriers on lucrative international business travel, which has lagged domestic markets in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

American Airlines Group Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp both recently extended similar agreements with carriers from the Middle East.

Yet the United-Emirates deal would have seemed highly unlikely during years of rancor over government subsidies. The United States airline, alongside American and Delta Air Lines Inc, alleged the Gulf giant, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways were all unfairly benefiting from state support.

The United Arab Emirates and the government of Qatar eventually agreed to improve financial transparency.

“Who would have believed” that Emirates and United would join together, Tim Clark, president of the Dubai carrier, said at a launch ceremony in an airport hangar.

“But we kind of look forward and we don’t look back.” The agreement is founded around “putting two great brands together,” added Kirby.

“That’s what this is all about.”

Clark said he views a joint venture between Emirates and Qantas Airways Ltd of Australia as a potential template for developing the relationship with United.

That accord, which dates to 2013 and was recently extended for a further five years, dominates the market for westbound flights from Australia.

“If we get this right it will become something really formidable,” he said of the United pact on Bloomberg Television.

The planned termination of a codeshare deal with JetBlue on Oct 30 is a mutual and natural decision as the US carrier gets closer to members of the Oneworld airline alliance, Clark said.

Emirates rival Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, is also expanding a codeshare with JetBlue to increase flying to New York.

Emirates, the world’s largest carrier on international routes, itself has no plans to join one of the three main global groupings, Clark said.

“Never say never, but as long as I’m here that won’t happen,” he said.

“We’ve been able to chart our own destiny, and dealing with many of the big alliance players within all the alliances on a bilateral basis has worked for us.”

United will start a direct flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Dubai in March as part of the agreement, Kirby said. The US carrier’s customers can then board flights to more than 100 cities on Emirates or sister airline Flydubai.

Starting in November, Emirates customers arriving in Chicago, San Francisco and Houston will have access to nearly 200 cities in the United network, most requiring a single connecting flight.

Emirates, which has been beset by late aircraft deliveries for new widebodies, expects to begin getting Boeing Co’s long-delayed 777X jets in summer 2025.

The carrier is in regular dialog with the manufacturer “on the promise that if something happens they will tell us, and not hide it or conceal it or whatever.”

The Gulf airline is continuing to talk with Airbus SE about “compressing” deliveries of the A350 widebody to cope with the absence of the 777X, and aims to take the first in August 2024, with all 50 arriving by the end of 2026, Clark said.

Further orders for the A350 are also a possibility, he said. Emirates is now flying 70 of its 118 Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft as it anticipates a return to pre-Covid traffic levels next year.

 - Bloomberg