The deal effectively adds more than 50 destinations to the Qatari national carrier’s network in North America. The airline only entered the US market this summer, launching direct flights to New York and Washington DC.

The agreement means Qatar’s flight codes are applied to selected domestic services run by United from the US capital. The arrangement also applies on routes linking key European gateways, which Qatar already flies to, with onward United flights from them to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Chicago.

The agreement was approved by the US Department of Transportation.