The “Big Three” Middle East airlines —Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways—have some of the most extensive international networks in the world. In September 2024, they will operate a total of 2,136 flights to and from the United States (an average of 71 flights per day), with many of them being some of the longest flights in the world at over 8,000 miles. However, the routes and the aircraft used vary considerably, so let’s compare the US networks of the Middle East giants.

Comparing the Big Three

Qatar Airways offers the most US flights out of the three, with nearly a thousand direct flights to and from its home base of Doha (DOH). However, Emirates flies a larger number of routes (14) and utilizes its Airbus A380 fleet on the largest of those routes, so it ultimately provides 17% more capacity than Qatar Airways in terms of seats.

Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock

Etihad is a distant third to these two, as it only has four direct routes to the US. While it also utilizes the A380 on its route from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to New York (JFK), it ultimately provides less than a quarter of the US seats that its Dubai-based cousin does.

Photo: Kent Raney | Shutterstock 

Emirates offers the most capacity

Emirates will offer 14 routes to the US this month—11 of them direct from Dubai and three of them being some of the twelve fifth-freedom flights that it operates in total.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

The three fifth-freedom flights that Emirates operates to/from the US are also its shortest flights. They include the following:

• Dubai (DXB) to Newark (EWR) via Athens (ATH): It is also noteworthy that Emirates competes with United Airlines’ daily Boeing 787-10 service on the ATH-EWR leg, but clearly finds the route profitable enough to operate a daily B777-300ER service
• Dubai (DXB) to New York (JFK) via Milan (MXP): This route has been operating for over a decade with an A380 and is in addition to Emirates’ twice-daily A380 service that flies DXB-JFK direct, meaning Emirates offers nearly 1,500 seats to the largest US city each day.
• Dubai (DXB) to Bogota (BOG) via Miami (MIA): Emirates began operating this very contentious dog-leg flight to Bogota via Miami earlier this year. It represents the second daily DXB-MIA flight and competes directly with multiple daily flights from American Airlines, avianca, and LATAM on the MIA-BOG leg.

Photo: Emirates

Emirates’ longest flight to the US is to LAX, which at 8,334 miles, is comfortably in the top 20 longest flights in the world. The rest of its flights match closely to the largest US cities with the busiest airports, with one notable exception. Emirates has chosen to forego flying to Atlanta (ATL), the world’s business airport, despite Qatar Airways successfully flying there for the better part of a decade.

Photo: Mario Trusch | Shutterstock

Etihad is dwarfed by its Middle East rivals

Etihad currently offers only four routes to the US, using a variety of aircraft.

Photo: Etihad Airways.

Etihad is the smallest of the three carriers and also has the fewest US destinations. Its longest route is to Chicago, which it flies daily with the larger version of the A350. It has a stronger focus on New York, where it has two daily routings, one with the A380 and the other with a B787-9. Boston gets a B787-9 flight four times weekly, with flights departing AbuDhabi on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Photo: Etihad Airways

Qatar Airways has the most flights

As the only one of the three airlines that is part of a global alliance (oneworld), Qatar Airways offers the most US flights (976 in September) and various aircraft types and variants.

Photo: Qatar Airways

Like the others, New York is Qatar Airways’ most notable destination, with a total of three daily flights (one A350-900 and two B777-300ER). It also flies twice daily to Dallas, the largest hub of its oneworld partner, American Airlines, using the larger variant of the A350 for both flights. It has also started expanding its routes to LAX, MIA, and BOS, each getting a second flight three times a week using an A350-1000, B777-200LR, and A350-900, respectively.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Like Emirates, Qatar Airways has multiple US-bound flights that are 8,000+ miles long, and in each case, it prefers to utilize the range of the A350-1000. After its Doha (DOH) – Auckland (AKL) route, which exceeds 9,000 miles and is the third-longest flight in the world, the US flights to LAX, SFO, IAH, and DFW are the longest flights in the Qatar Airways network.