Dubai: United Airlines has launched daily flights from its Washington hub to Doha via Dubai, the airline said in a statement.
“The extension of the existing Dubai service to Doha is the first of three new, previously announced United services from Washington Dulles,” the statement said.
The airline will introduce nonstop service between Dulles and Manchester on Wednesday, and between Dulles and Dublin, Ireland, on June 7.
United operates the Washington/Dulles-Dubai-Doha service with a Boeing 777 aircraft, which has a total of 269 seats - eight in First, 40 in Business and 221 in Economy class seats.
"With the recent announcements of Etihad and Emirates starting flights to the US Capital, it comes as little surprise that United Airlines now wants to challenge its Arabian competitors,” said Saj Ahmad, Chief Analyst with the UK-based StrategicAero Research.
“While this new daily service is via Dubai, there is still ample opportunity for United Airlines to try and snare traffic out of there and Doha but given that the GCC airlines have far newer airplanes and an all round better cabin product, it will be difficult for the US carrier to make any serious inroads, if any," Ahmad said.
Doha is the fourth city in the Gulf region that United serves.
