Source: Arabian Business
Author: Anil Bhoyrul

United Airlines is expected to announce direct flights between Dubai and the USA, sources close to the company suggest.

Senior executives from the airline are flying into the emirate later today, and confirmation of the plans could come as early as Tuesday.

"It's no secret this is something we really want to do, and hopefully next week will be the big week for us," says a senior United Airlines executive.

Last October United Airlines began direct flights between Kuwait and Washington DC, its first direct foray into the Middle East market.

The Middle East - US route is said to be hugely lucrative, with Emirates Airline and Etihad both operating direct flights to the US East coast.

Virgin Atlantic, which launched services between London and Dubai last March, has already changed its Dubai departure times so that passengers can quickly board connecting flights to the US.

A United Airlines source said: "Emirates were first to do this and nobody was quite sure it would work, especially as we are talking about a 13-hour flight. But it has been a huge success and now they are doing two flights a day to New York.

"We only started flying to Kuwait last year but so far the response has been great."

He added: "In the past two years, the amount of business travel between the US and UAE has hugely increased. Especially with the DIFC now up and running, a lot of the big US banks have bases in Dubai and need to be there quickly."

It is thought that initial services will be around three times a week, direct from Dubai to New York, to "test the market."

The source adds: "If you look at what Virgin did, they only started with four flights a week and now have really stepped things up. We will probably go in with something similar."