United says it will end its Washington Dulles-Dubai flight next month due to the difficulty of competing with the subsidized Gulf carriers, especially after a federal agency has determined that government employees traveling on the route should fly on Emirates aircraft.
In August, the General Services Administration awarded the 2016 contract for the Washington-Dubai route to JetBlue, which does not actually fly the route but does have a codeshare agreement with Emirates.
As a result, an estimated 15,000 government employees will fly Emirates to Dubai in 2016, United said.