Originally Posted by
suley
A little late, I noticed a article on BBC recently which stated EK was along with BA and others applying a surcharge for fuel costs. It seems a excuse to raise profitability given EK would more then likely have a contract as oppose to pay spot rates and even so, it would buy oil from Dubai aka its owner
Hmmm. Dubai doesn’t have oil, so they have to buy it somewhere. Local Jet A1 refining capacity wasn’t huge the last time I checked, but the lack of oil means that whatever is sold by ENOC to Emirates has to be at commercial rates because they fund growth with debt, not money coming out from the ground. Emirates mostly buys Jet A1 from western companies like BP and Chevron. Abu Dhabi only does Dubai favours when there’s a crisis. It’s a complex relationship.
Additionally, EK is mostly a long haul airline, so even if there was a subsidy (I spent years studying EK’s books as my client, and saw no evidence of this, in sharp contrast with QR and EY) tankering would be pointless / impossible as many destinations are out of range, and significant proportion of fuel has to be purchased at outstations. Suggesting that EK can be completely immune to global prices is false, even if we accept that they somehow have access to cheaper fuel.