Qatar Air expands US footprint

Qatar Airways will extend its code-share partnership with JetBlue Airways Corporation to 29 destinations beyond Boston when it begins flying to the US gateway airport in March.

The agreement will allow Qatar to sell tickets to cities including Austin, Cleveland, Denver, Tampa and Seattle under its own flight code, building on a deal that already allows the Gulf airline to market 32 JetBlue services out of New York John F. Kennedy airport, including 17 that overlap with Boston.

The Boston flights will use Qatar Air’s newest Airbus Group SE A350 aircraft, the Doha-based carrier said in a statement Wednesday. The No. 2 Mideast carrier — after Dubai-based Emirates — already serves Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, and will also add Los Angeles and Atlanta in 2016.

Qatar Airways is expanding its US footprint as United Continental, Delta and American Airlines urge the government to impose a freeze on the big three Gulf operators until a dispute over whether they’ve unfairly benefited from state subsidies is resolved.-Bloomberg