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I should of course, quickly respond to the rest of your post just for completeness' sake.

I hardly think The Economist writes any fan mail pieces - except that their editorial position is the support of classical economic liberalism. I'm not sure anyone in this thread argues seriously against that point of view.

A serious question though: are you at all familiar with the publication? It is seen as extremely credible on many matters of economics and public policy and is seen to be non-partisan (except of course in its economic philosophy - e.g. it does not enjoy state capitalism as a matter of principle).

Unfortunately, state control (or at the very least major influence) of media is prevalent over many places in the world, not just the UAE - e.g. Singapore. That is why I (at least) have tried to rely on independent data from globally reputable sources to back up any claims I am making in this thread, because I am well aware that it is difficult to be persuasive when relying entirely on the representations of the company in question. That is only fair to give the legitimate questions asked about EK and its business model a proper airing and chance to stand on their own.


Agreed - it is public policy, and I feel that public policy shouldn't really be subject to the dictates of an oligopoly who are unlikely to have the public's best interests at heart.

You mention state control of media above - in a jurisdiction like the US where it doesn't happen (except perhaps with self-censorship or the journalistic herd mentality that arguably popped up in the US in the late 2000s for various obvious reasons), one has to be wary of the current form of press and public opinion manipulation which is the presence of a large amount of lobbying money, money which historically is used to shape public and legislative opinion.

That's why once again, we try and rely on objective data, not information from both the accused and accusers as both have vested interests in their positions.


Also agreed, it will be interesting to see if demographic and economic growth can outpace capacity increases, or whether current airlines in the market need to retrench as they can't compete on the cost base.

Thailand, btw, is already conquered by the ME3 - EK have 6 flights a day (4 of them A380s), EY and QR 4 daily. All widebodies. Which all get filled regularly, even in the premium classes (shocking to some, I know).

After all, in many of those opinion-for-hire pieces that have been published recently, they link to independent data showing that implied demand for international air traffic is on such a growth trajectory (on absolute numbers - after all, if 200 million people travel in India and there's a growth rate of 2%, that's 4 million extra seats a year to supply capacity to - 11000 seats a day, enough for 24 A380s. Let's not even get started on China and SE Asia - Indonesia of course has a population of 240 million and the Philippines 100 million let's not forget. That is the factor, imho, that will determine whether these 4 super-connectors can survive or fail - if that population and economic growth is going to actually happen quickly enough.

You have outdated skills and knowledge, what a surprise...
That explains your Pravda-esque "I'm right because I say so, and I don't need to back up my allegations with verifiable facts" posts. You're the FT version of Comical Ali. @:-)

Essentially half the world's population lives in an area bound by China and the Philippines in the east, Indonesia in the South, Pakistan in the west, and India and China to the north. Even minor levels of economic growth can generate large increases in the traveling population. There is no question that the ME3's strategy is a gamble, but there is a basis for taking that bet.

You put it far more succinctly than me :D

^

But if a city currently doesn't have a US3 non-stop flight, it can't possibly be viable to have any flights to there, at least according to some "experts"...

LAD is so unviable as a destination it has to have a 3 x weekly private charter, 747 - mainly biz class, by 5Y!

(Delta did waste a lot of money trying to open at LAD circa 2009/2010)!

Gulf Carriers are classified as Low Cost Long Haul (LCLH), so they ate both lunch and dinner.

Of course I'm familiar with the Economist -- it's a boring English-based magazine that few people actually read. But it's usually known for higher quality articles than this piece, which is substance-free. There have been published allegations that the ME3 "buys off" European journalists with perks. I have no personal knowledge whether that's true. But if this guy didn't get bought off, he should have! You'd find better journalism in a fan magazine (and btw, I used to be a journalist, too, who worked for a competitor of the Economist, so I know a little about that subject, too).

Again, instead of going on attack mode and attributing positions to us that we don't hold, you should study the concepts that I and FD1971 are offering. It's a pretty good primer on airline economics. You might learn something. I know it took me decades to learn this stuff and, in my youth, I might have been less skeptical of things like what the ME3 are doing.

And when the lid is blown on the ME3 subsidy thing, you might feel a little bit better about yourself. Although, from my experience, few people ever apologize for being wrong.

Um, I guess the moderators are going to have to close this thread again for the personal attacks. Please try restrain yourself for the good of your compatriots. The others may not be right, but at least they try facts. Your posts are 100% insults.

They are a lobbying organization, not a supposedly independent media outfit. Tremendous difference, of course.

BTW, don't knock Mr. Schlappig. His overall work, like that done by many of the popular miles and points blogs, can be better than that of most formal "journalists." That said, Mr. Schlappig appears a little out of his depth on this subsidy thing (it's not really a frequent flyer issue of course), just like Gary at ViewFromtheWing (who seems a little too fond of his free Emirates flights to me).

Here's the only "concept" you have offered: unsubstantiated allegations that you can't back up, and when you are challenged to present facts, you "forget" to provide it. Whatever floats your boat...
Or perhaps you're referring to FD1971's concept that someone who doesn't blindly believe in the unsubstantiated allegations is a "US3 hater?" Talk about "attributing positions"...
As we have seen many examples of in this thread, where you have repeatedly failed to acknowledge that you have misconstrued what various articles state. Your attempt to tell an article author what he really said in his article was a nice touch...
You should try facts. @:-) You started this thread months ago, and you have yet to provide any facts to back up your anti-EK allegations.
How much money do you have invested in US3 stock? Answering that question (and many other that you have "forgotten" to answer) will reveal your true reasons for starting this thread.

If you are a former journalist I am surprised you think The Economist is a magazine - it is a newspaper and is also quite popular!

http://m.campaignlive.co.uk/article/...affairs-sector

Please can you provide a link to your allegation?

The Economist journalists, as I am sure you know, do not publish their names following their pieces. The ME3 would therefore need to buy off Pearson plc, not just a journalist, to get any The Economist article favouring them.

I am surprised you don't rate The Economist as a reliable source!

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-...merica-2014-10

It's readership is rather large, compared to other weekly publications, when it comes to senior government and business leaders around the world. It must not be that boring, especially to anyone interested in foreign affairs, government and business.

To be entirely honest with you, I simply do not find the time to spend more than 10-15 seconds on almost all replies, so only briefly scanned your first post including the red passages for a few seconds.

The reason, aside from time, is simple, there is nothing new and interesting for me anyway, since I know most of the people and read most of the publication hence know the vast majority of their opinions. As pointed out before, Mr. de Wit is spending a lot of time in Germany and the case of the ME3 and Emirates is actually pretty obvious. @:-)