Originally Posted by jakesterUK
If you do a search on the web, you will find plenty of articles which point to cheap labour in Dubai (these are general and not specifically related to Emirates), however, I would be very surprised if one of the main factors in their success was the relatively low costs of using Dubai airport.
Additionally, as Dubai is their base, and doubtless they have staff based in other cities around the world, they are going to benefit from more cost effective routes transiting their own country, just as SQ, CX and other Asian and Middle Eastern carriers will.
BA and LH probably have the edge if you are flying from the Middle East to anywhere in America (perhaps with the exception of New York, but even then BA or LH may be more competitively priced). But flying to Asia Pacific from Europe, EK is bound to be able to be so competitive, because its frequencies, and as I mentioned the relatively low costs at Dubai (I stand to be corrected as far as Dubai is concerned, but I can't believe that EK is paying a lot to use this airport).
Bingo!! Cheap labor is where EK maintains a huge advantage over most other carriers. In most businesses (and I would imagine in airlines as well) labor costs are the biggest expense out there. I would be that their flight and cabin crews wages are competitive with the rest of the world, but where EK has the advantage is their ground staff, who are being paid peanuts in comparison to their counterparts in Europe, the US, etc. They can pass these savings on to the customer in the way of lower airfares, keeping their flights full. If you do a search on itasoftware.com from KWI for example, pick any 10 markets which EK serves and they will be in the top three for lowest price on all 10 destinations. Check routes to Europe and the Euro carriers are sometimes almost double the price.
I'm sure there are other advantages that EK has at their Dubai hub, although I think the fuel price disparity is not as great as some would like to believe.