Am I correct in understanding what you are getting to is that MAN is simply a stopover point for passengers from Dubai to Canada, and its simply to be able to take advantage of the Openskies policy Canada has with the UK?
Yes. Until an openskies policy with the UAE is arranged, to have a stop over at a point with an openskies policy will be the ONLY way to expand in Canada, whether its just extra flights to YYZ, or, new routes to YUL/YYC/YVR/YEG.
If this is true; the UAE-Canada O&D traffic is minimal, it’s the connecting traffic from MENA/South East Asia which is the primary market EK has tapped into. EK will not benefit as much by having passengers routed DEL-DXB-MAN-YVR, as they will lose out to competitors, for example DEL-FRA-YVR... on LH.
If the price is right, people will excuse a transit stop. The whole basis of the EK operation is for people to travel 1 stop to their final destination at a good price. It is wrong to say EK will not consider a stop en-route, as there are plenty of examples on 1 stop flights in the EK system: HAM-JFK (when they had it), LUS-HRE, ACC-ADB, ADD-ENT, BKK-HKG, CMB-MLE just to name a few
EK will lose out big time. EK has no desire to start a flight from DXB via another city to get to Canada, it’s not that traffic which EK wants, there are plenty of other quicker and cheaper options that are available. The only viable way EK would make the route profitable is by tapping into the MAN-Canada market which you implied isn't necessary... my thoughts are the opposite.
Well, if they had to use MAN for extra seats, then they could. We are not talking about filling up a B77W/A380 here, by the time the aircraft gets to MAN, for the MAN-Canada O&D, Emirates will be looking to fill an A320/B757, which MAN is more than capable of doing. Like I have said, the MAN market is bigger than you think, and to say it is tiny is just ignorant. Yes, its tiny compared to say, LHR-Canada, but, is bigger than quite a few other markets.