I think this route is working fine. If they were to pull that route, they would have done it last winter. And this spring, they are not pushing $300 fares or 25,000mi awards like they did last year. Frequency also maintained well through winter (something like 5x weekly), which I believe is up from previous winter.

And don't forget that when EK starts A345 service between HAM-JFK, all those a.netters were saying CO would be eaten alive, blah blah blah... But guess who's still flying non-stop between Hamburg and the NYC area? [Hint: not Emirates.]