Emirates is to boost its US network with new flights to Dallas and Seattle.
The airline’s president Tim Clark said the Gulf-based carrier will launch daily flights from Dubai to Dallas, Texas on February 2 with Seattle on the West Coast following on March 1, the Bloomberg agency reported.
The new services are now available for booking on the carrier’s website.
Emirates pans to use a three-class long-range B777-200LR with new premium products for both routes.
Flying time between Dubai and Dallas is 16 hours and 20 minutes while the Dubai-Seattle route will take 15 hours and 20 minutes.
Timings for the return flights are roughly one or two hours shorter.
In his Bloomberg interview, Clark hinted that Emirates wished to add further US cities to its network.
These include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
But no timescale as yet for any of them to come on stream.
The announcement of these two cities, let alone the other US possibles, will not sit well with Europe’s flag-carriers who currently capitalise on the voluminous passenger flows between the Middle East Asia, Africa and North America.
Until now the comprehensive North American networks operated by the likes of British Airways, Air France KLM and Lufthansa has given them the edge over the likes of Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.