I noticed anecdotally that more and more people in the US - even from here in California - are traveling overseas. The data confirms this: http://travel.trade.gov/research/monthly/departures/ - it's been over 5% annual growth since the recovery. I have friends who took their families overseas to visit Japan for Thanksgiving break (!!), preferring to meet relatives for Christmas instead.

On the other hand, it's becoming cheaper than ever to fly abroad, and as discussed elsewhere, low-cost macro environments are not a purely good thing for Emirates. Here at SFO, Emirates now has to compete against not only against the usual suspects like Etihad, but also nonstops from China and even Air India (made possible in part by the low oil prices).

It seems like every market in the world has these issues, but the intensities differ, and that's where the opportunities may exist for Emirates to move quickly to make money in this environment. They've done well to launch MCO and FLL.

EK's long-haul A380 product is still a very good asset and better than most of the competition, despite uncertainties in the future of that aircraft.