No doubt the U.S/ME travel ban has been one of the biggest travel stories to talk about in the past few weeks. 10 Middle Eastern cities are on the list where travellers are not allowed to take items bigger than their mobile phone onboard with them when departing from the airlines’ port, Emirates won’t even allow Bose powered headphones. If you’re departing from the U.S you’re not affected.

The ban has affected all Middle Eastern carriers that fly to the US but we’ve even seen other carriers like Air India massively profit from the ban. They said that their ticket sales to and from the U.S have risen 100%, that’s insane!

Due to the ban, Emirates yesterday said that they will be reducing services to selected US cities. The services that will be affected will be:

• Dubai – Fort Lauderdale will go from daily to 5-weekly. This will happen from May 1st
• Dubai – Boston will go from twice-daily to once-daily. This will happen from June 2nd
• Dubai – Orlando will go from daily to 5-weekly. This will happen from May 23rd
• Dubai – Seattle will go from twice-daily to once-daily. This will happen from June 1st
• Dubai – Los Angeles will go from twice-daily to once-daily. This will happen from July 1st

After yesterday’s announcement from Emirates, Etihad has come out and said it will NOT reduce any U.S services (at this time).

Per Reuters,

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said on Wednesday it was not planning to reduce services on its U.S. routes, after rival Emirates announced it is cutting back on flights to five U.S. cities starting from May due to a drop in demand.

Keep in mind, Etihad has a lot smaller market in the U.S opposed to Emirates so I’m not too surprised they aren’t reducing any flights.

Etihad currently operates to the following cities:

• Los Angeles
• New York
• San Fransisco
• Washington
• Dallas

Etihad 787-9 In Washington Dulles

So far there’s been no comments from Qatar Airways but I’d love to hear more on what Akbar Al Baker thinks about the whole situation…

H/T – Gulfnews.com