I read in the paper today that one of the reasons that Lufthansa has given to its union to keep costs under control is the need to compete with Emirates.

This got me to thinking....

I have noticed that while fares from the West Coast to Europe in the Winter have almost doubled over the last 5 years ($5-600 fares were common not too long ago), fares to India/Middle East/South Africa seemed to have increased by far less.

Perhaps this is because of Emirates and Etihad? They compete on routes from the US to India/Middle East/Africa, but not US to Europe.