Gulf airlines refine their respective US strategies after solid expansion during the last year

The big three Gulf carriers capped off a significant push into the US market in Apr-2013 with Qatar's launch of service from Doha to Chicago. But Emirates remains the leading carrier to the US amongst those airlines, and broadened its reach into the US significantly during 2012 with the launch of service to Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle and Washington Dulles.

Now with the most recent US route launches behind them, the next moves by the Gulf carriers into the market are being watched closely as the stature of those three carriers continues to rise on a global scale.

All three carriers have previously stated their desire to further enhance their service footprint in the US. But for the moment no new direct services have been announced by those airlines; however there is some subtle movement as Qatar and American Airlines have introduced a codeshare ahead of Qatar's ascension into oneworld later in 2013. Emirates and Etihad are making capacity adjustments in some existing US markets while Emirates is making an interesting move by introducing new service between Milan and New York as part of a one-stop route from Dubai.