Emirates has confirmed plans to reduce frequencies on five of its 12 US routes, blaming “recent actions taken by the US government”.

From May 1 the carrier will reduce its Dubai-Fort Lauderdale service from daily to five flights per week, followed by a similar reduction in its Orlando route from May 23.

Then from June 1 the carrier will reduce its Dubai-Seattle service from twice daily to daily, followed by similar reductions in its Boston and LA routes from June 2 and July 1 respectively.

Emirates said the decision follows actions by the US government “relating to the issuance of entry visas, heightened security vetting, and restrictions on electronic devices in aircraft cabins”, which it said have had “had a direct impact on consumer interest and demand for air travel into the US”.

In a statement provided to Business Traveller, the carrier said:

“Until the start of 2017, Emirates’ operations in the US have seen healthy growth and performance, driven by customer demand for our high quality product and our international flight connections.

“However, over the past three months, we have seen a significant deterioration in the booking profiles on all our US routes, across all travel segments. Emirates has therefore responded as any profit-oriented enterprise would, and we will redeploy capacity to serve demand on other routes on our global network.

“We will closely monitor the situation with the view to reinstate and grow our US flight operations as soon as viable. Emirates is committed to our US operations and will continue to serve our 12 American gateways – New York JFK, Newark, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando – with 101 flight departures per week, connecting these cities to Dubai and our global network of over 150 cities.”

emirates.com