There are many, many gov't subsidies given to private corporations. It's extremely common in the airline industry. What's not common are billions and billions in subsidies. Subsidies so large that it distorts everything in the industry. That how tiny countries in a remote corner of the world can have, by far, the largest widebody order book in the world. The world alrline industry has never seen anything like this, but the realization of what's happening is now registering loud and clear in both Europe and America.

I'm sure you would be happy to have the Emirates forum return to its fantasyland of champagne and caviar, but I'm not sure that would be doing a service to the Flyertalk community. This is the biggest story in world aviation today. I think we can act like adults and discuss it.

Yes, you are right. A story. As in: bedtime :D

I have another one. My VP once told me: "do you know why we call people that visit Members of Congress and bring monetary incentives with them 'Lobbyists'? Because calling it 'bribing' would have made the action illegal!" HAHAHAHAHA.

So yes, "tax breaks" or "subsidies", it's all in the eye of the beholder.

This is the nub of why this thread is so long. We have someone who steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that Dubai is located in anything other than a remote corner of the world. Christchurch, NZ. Yes that is in a remote corner of the world. Easter Island, yes that is.

I don't know what is so remote about having almost 2 billion people within ~2000 miles or 5 hrs flying.

I have no idea what the agenda of the OP is. Would love to find out.

Also, assuming flights to IAH, DFW, SFO, LAX and SEA are subsidised to some extent, why is it not inconceivable that these are subsidised by some of the group >$20b USD revenues it gets from its overall operations?

As for the DXB-JFK/IAH/BOS/ORD routes these are nothing special. They are not ULH routes, merely standard long haul, like SE Asia - Europe, or HKG - North America. In fact DXB-ORD is shorter than SYD-LAX, and DXB-BOS is shorter than SIN-LHR.

Why should I care if a foreign government makes my ticket cheaper? I certainly don't.
By that logic, you would reject any offer from me to buy you a drink/lunch, since that would be a 100% foreign subsidy :rolleyes:

I think the mods are in a slightly difficult position - whilst the signal-to-noise ratio has decreased from the beginnings of the thread (as the arguments are pretty much out there now), closing the thread I think sends the wrong signal and does a disservice to the sub-forum. Just because we disagree about something strongly doesn't mean we should shut down discussion - especially as the rest of the sub-forum seems to be working perfectly normally; new posters are still joining and getting some advice with their issues and other discussions are popping up. In a way I think it's better if all of this discussion about the business model gets dropped into one thread instead of new ones started every time something new develops in this story.

Every so often, some new development turns up (which pushes the thread along a bit with some new analysis which some posters find interesting) or the OP states something - instead of shutting things down - the "not listening" that some have pointed out the OP is doing - it is best to counter these things with a factual case rather than the easy option of thread locking. After all, this is all voluntary contributions and some are happy to spend a little but of their day making sure disinformation is debunked and differing arguments!

At the risk of being somewhat snide though, the EK forum is not all about champagne and caviar - especially as the passenger profile seems to be all low yield European backpackers and South Asian workers, who definitely can't afford F :D

Not necessarily-I have had hotels paid for by the client on Saturday in the EU as I could save hundreds by including the Saturday night stay.
(as well as in this case, maximising the value out of my weekly travelcard, which was already paid for by the client as well.)
The only costs I had to pay for were food/entertainment.

Thankfully this isnt the DL forum and whether or not we are at post 100 or post 1000 is somewhat irrelevant to Zol and I. We actually chatted on the phone today regarding this thread and our collective view is "knock yourselves out...."

We'll let you know when we feel the rules have been breached...

And for the most part, you are behaving like adults. Whether or not some of you are slightly unhinged, delusional, inebriated or suffering from a recent piano falling on your head, well, that is open for debate ;)

I don't think we're in a difficult position at all. I think this thread has probably been the highlight of my 5 years in moderating this forum. Threads are only closed if they violate the FT guidelines...

There have been lots of facts presented to you, which you ignorantly choose not respond to.

Of course it is... :rolleyes:

Yes. It is a much bigger story than airplanes falling out of the sky.:eek:

Errrrr the last two words strike me the most, everyone here has over and over again presented factual rebuttals to your continual banter to which you provide absolutely zero proof and then refuse to answer and "discuss" these points (i am leaning towards your experience as an analyst is incredibly narrow and only suited to American ways of doing business).
So perhaps do us all a favor and actually discuss and provide some serious answers to everyone's attempt to prove you and the US3 wrong!

And now just to fulfill my own curiosity, OP when you wake every morning do you look in the mirror and say to yourself "MERICA F#*K YEAH" ?? :D