My prediction is that this will never happen. Emirates is not so much a business, as it is a massive PR campaign for Dubai and the Royal Family. Operational decisions are made on this basis, and this has accrued to the benefit of EADS, Boeing, and travellers, but to the detriment of their competition who must live in the real world of return on equity.

Financially speaking, Emirates is a black box, and nobody really knows whether the company makes money or not -- regardless of what they say. An IPO is therefore extremely unlikely, as this is not the type of investment private capital looks for. That's ok for Emirates -- for now -- as capital is freely available to it, regardless of expected return, from the royal family. If this ever changes, and these subsidies were to become unavailable, a major revamp and rationalization of the airline would be necessary to sucessfully privatize the company to fund its losses and need for capital. Emirates standing as a "player" in the arena of the global airline industry will be directly related to Dubai's ability to fund its operations.