Originally Posted by GUWonder

There is basically zero chance of the U.S. and/or UAE revoking or revising the international legal agreements relevant to EK and EY service to/from the U.S. at any point this year at least. And even in 2016, expect the Admin to punt the football to buy more time beyond 2016.

The EU may be a different story, but I have doubts that it turns on a dime this year.

It's clear that xenophobia -- even of the racist variety -- is a major propellant in the hostility directed toward EK. Exploiting and otherwise fostering xenophobic/racist sentiments is part of the strategy of some of EK's competitors. Whether or not such approach is weak depends on what we mean by weak. Such xenophobic/racist approaches to attack EK are weak on logical merits, but they may be effective in some other ways.

There are some anti-Arab and Islamophobic memes that the US3 and EU2/3 seem to be willing to peddle (directly or indirectly) against EK. And they do this despite their own entanglements with the GCC and the fact that EK's employee and management ranks are very diverse and neither very "Arab" nor "Islamic".