Ted Reed reports that Etihad’s decision to launch Charlotte flights is attributable to President Trump’s Mideast trip. They weren’t even talking to the airport beforehand.
- Etihad had never even spoken about service with Charlotte airport before President Trump’s trip to the Mideast.
- They called the airport the day before Trump arrived in the U.A.E. They announced service the day after Trump’s visit.
- Etihad also committed to 28 Boeing widebody aircraft with GE engines.
What’s interesting to me is that they’re growing service to the U.S. because of the Trump administration. The first time he was President the controversy was over whether they had too much service. Delta, United and American were arguing that Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar were subsidized by their governments and shouldn’t be allowed access to the U.S. market. (The U.S. airlines didn’t want competition – they wanted consumers to have fewer choices and face higher fares.)
As part of this Delta-led campaign, American ceased codesharing with Qatar and Etihad. Etihad, which was scaling back its ambitions anyway, dropped Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas service.
Etihad Business Class
While the U.S. airline campaign had gone nowhere under the Obama administration, the big carriers expressed hope that a Trump administration would be more protectionist (ironic, now that Trump’s protectionism is coming back to bite them). They prosecuted a highly disingenuous and misleading campaign that culminated in an Oval Office meeting set up by Peter Navarro that Delta no-showed.
In Bastian’s absence Trump ‘scolded’ Delta for buying Airbus planes while the Gulf carriers were big customers of Boeing. Trump chastised then-American Airlines CEO Doug Parker over his company’s lagging share price. Ultimately Trump told the U.S. airlines that they have to file a complaint with the Department of Transportation, something they’ve never done because they don’t have a substantive claim under U.S. law.
Abu Dhabi International Airport
I generally try to avoid the Charlotte airport. I find it unpleasant, from the low ceilings to the packed terminals, it simply wasn’t built for the volume that American Airlines pushes through it and they’ve worked to keep costs as low as possible to satisfy American’s finance organization.
Charlotte Airport B Concourse
The flight is an interesting win for Charlotte, that seems commercially odd. While they have a mileage earning and redemption partnership with American (though there are heavy restrictions now using AAdvantage miles for Etihad premium cabins) there’s no status-earning or codesharing. And while Charlotte chould be a better connecting point from the Southeast for them than New York JFK it may not matter that much for ultra-long haul … and many of the connections will be low yield ‘visiting friends and relatives’ business beyond Abu Dhabi to India and Pakistan.
New Etihad Charlotte service will be four times a week on a Boeing 787 starting May 4, 2026. Charlotte joins New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, Boston and Atlanta (which commences July 2) as the airline’s U.S. destinations.
The route will likely never happen, or if it does launch, probably will not last. CLT is a mid-sized city, doesn’t generate the traffic to support the route, or much of the long haul traffic that CLT features. What makes it all work is the AA hub there. Etihad and AA do have some commercial ties, but not anywhere near as comprehensive as with QR.
I’m surprised Qatar hasn’t launched a flight there yet. Maybe they do to compete with etihad.
A lot of people are waking up to the fact that Charlotte is a top 15/20 US city and can support such O&D service…
So will Constellis/Blackwater — affiliated with Erik Prince — be sending a lot of its mercenaries/employees on these flights from Charlotte to Abu Dhabi and then perhaps elsewhere in the Middle East and/or Africa?
The UAE loves American mercenaries, and it even hired some Americans to try to run assassinations for it.
Come on. Does anyone really think that if Trump was going to pressure a Middle East airline to fly a route it would be CLT? PBI yes, CLT no.
No way there is sufficient demand to sustain an ultra long haul destination from CLT four times per week with a 303 seat 787-9 (at least for a profit).
A decade ago, I took an empty 757 T/A flight from Lisbon to CLT that literally had 25 people in coach. That route didn’t last long, either.
Does this have something to do with the planned Abu Dhabi AI investments?
Low ceilings save energy. There is nothing wrong with an airport concourse with low ceilings.
Route announced. UAE and Trump take a victory lap. If the flight happens they’ll tout day and night. If it doesn’t launch it’s someone else’s fault. It’s always someone else’s fault.
@Joe while Charlotte is growing as a city it’s nowhere near being large enough to support O&D traffic to the UAE. There are larger, more affluent markets that yet to have service to the GCC. Without AA’s feed the flight doesn’t work.
@lavanderialarry – Charlotte is now the 14th largest city in the US and continues to be one of the fastest growing ones. We are actually over twice as big as Atlanta (city limits only of course) and our metro area is growing faster than almost any other city on the East Coast with the possible of exception of Raleigh so you can see NC is picking up lots of residents. In addition businesses continue to relocate or expand in the area.
I understand that most of the CLT traffic is connecting but I can see AA codesharing on the flight (only AA hub with Eitihad service outside of ORD which is more UA than AA). Also there are quite a few Indian and middle eastern residents in CLT plus it is a major Fintech hub. All in all I think it will work.
Mind you, Phoenix still does not have any flights to the middle east or Asia. 5th largest city in the world and we are left with the crumbs
More options and competition is usually good for consumers. Whether this actually happens is another story. So much ‘talk’ of ‘deals,’ but reality is often quite different. I don’t frequent CLT, but good for them, if it does. Since AUH has pre-clearance, Etihad could technically fly to many more US cities and airports, if they want to. This is definitely not making them much money on the actual routes, but could be seem as an appeasement to our king. Bah!
If I were connecting to an Ethiad flight CLT would be the LAST airport I’d choose to connect in. Those 1990s drop ceiling lounges are abysmal . No Thx.
Doesn’t matter, fairly certain this flight won’t see the light of day … or if it does it’ll last 3 months tops.
Ah, it’s literally a swamp flight, on the schedule for corruption purposes.
Thanks for the explanation. It made no sense from an economics point of view.
I’m sure it’ll get cut. Most announcements from this president never come to fruition and are abandoned.
Anyone still remembers the president claiming credit for Foxconn’s “incredible investment” worth $10b in Wisconsin in 2017 which he said would not have happened if he had not been elected? Look up what’s happened to it.
@ Eric Ji
> Phoenix still does not have any flights to the middle east or Asia. 5th largest city in the world and we are left with the crumbs
Your data is misused. Phoenix is the 11th largest metropolitan area in the US (not the world!) by population. Airlines serve a place not because of the population of it’s anchor city but of the metro area!!
Also, population size means nothing; income matters. The average income in Phoenix is pretty darn low, 40% lower than the US median and a whopping 2/3 lower.than the San Francisco Bay Area. So when you look at the market size by propensity to pay for flights, it’s absolutely tiny.
@derekRight ORD Terminal 2 and 3 are great with their low ceilings and labyrinth passageways.
“Charlotte is now the 14th largest city in the US.”
OK, here are some cities (using airport codes) and their rank:
10. JAX
14. CLT
25. BOS
26. DTW
And, by metro area:
11. BOS
14. DTW
21. CLT
38. JAX
Which is a better ranking for airline-traffic prediction? CLT has 21% more residents than SEA by city limits. SEA metro has 44% more than CLT metro. Which better describes the demographics?
CLT isn’t THAT bad, but you’d struggle to find a more expensive bottle of water from an airport gift shop. That being said, most of the problem at CLT is the volume of people in the terminal and in the overcrowded lounges.
As far as possible, new international flights out of CLT are concerned, it seems like this should be a good thing. These non-US carriers (and other businesses) line up to do business with a pro-capitalist administration. I fail to see why this attitude towards the USA is a bad thing. It could increase competition, leading to lower air fares or even mileage redemptions in some cases.
@Eric
Phoenix is the 5h largest city in the world? It wouldn’t even be in the list of the top 100.
@Dave W. — Oh, please… let’s not perpetuate the *lies* of Jacksonville, Florida, which has taken nearly all of Duval County as part of its territory, thus creating a statistical anomaly, making it seem much ‘larger’ than it really is (by surface area and population). As for Florida, I assure you, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando metropolitan areas are far larger and more populous than little ole Jacksonville. So, yes, CLT does have more going on that JAX.
I can imagine what would go through the mind of an Etihad 1st and biz pax upon landing in CLT: Am in in some dystopian past? Did we time warp back to 1990? Is this a remnant of the old LGA? What, no 1st or biz lounge? Oh, this must be the bus station.
That is, as Gary said, CLT is unpleasant, crowded, to be avoided, and I’d say the most horrid airport I have been to in the entire world.
Let’s not forget that CLT is home to a lot of money – it is often referred to as Wall Street Light or Wall Street South, Bank of America is headquartered of course, but Wells Fargo apparently employs more people in CLT than in its west coast HQ. Literally every high rise in CLT is a bank or other financial institution. Many, if not all, have major asset investments and partnerships in the Middle East. Then there is in the immediate surrounding area the motorsports industry. And a lot of manufacturing and engineering from many (German) companies who emply large swaths of Indian engineers. Add to all of this that CLT is not just home to growing originating pax, but is also transfer focused with immense throughput (as Gary rightly pointed out: at times too much). Etihad might just pull this off. I do think that Qatar would have made more sense because of the One World partnership. But… I do not see this as completely unreasonable. Time will tell.