There was a time not that long ago when 15-20 minutes in the hold was the norm. BA captains would always caveat an anticipated on time departure, and therefore arrival, as being subject to "holding" and "air traffic control", but that then almost magically disappeared, some time before the pandemic. From memory it had to do with slowing planes down earlier. To my simple mind that should mean planes are arriving more or less at the same time, but that previously they would race to London and then be placed in the hold, whereas now they take a steadier trajectory, getting to London more slowly, but landing straight away. I am only going by snippets of what I've heard, and my mind could be playing tricks on me, but if anyone more educated knows the answer then I'd be interested to hear the explanation.

I do realise this has gone off topic, so to get us back on track, I agree that geography is secondary to cultural, historic and language ties, hence BA being strong in North America, IB in South America, TAP in Brazil etc. However I do think that Dubai's geography was instrumental in making EK a global player.