Why Emirates Is Not a Real Airline (huffingtonpost.com)

September 14, 2015

By Rob Britton
Adjunct professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University

On September 1, Emirates Airline opened yet another new route, from Dubai to Orlando, their 10th U.S. gateway. Behind all the cheerleading in central Florida, though, is a stark reality: Emirates cannot simultaneously operate as a for-profit company and meet the aggressive growth targets – like the Orlando route – that its government has specified. Something has to give. And in this case, what “gives” is the government of Dubai, which has shown that it is more than willing to offer wheelbarrows of cash to prop up its airline. The government is also willing to employ gimmicky accounting tricks in an attempt to hide this massive government funding, because these subsidies violate the Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, the same agreement Emirates relies on for its massive expansion in the U.S.

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Tags: Emirates, indirect subsidy, open skies, Unfair competition