Originally Posted by Typhoonpilot

Emirates pay the government a dividend every year. It is plainly written in their annual report. The figure was $224 million last year and has been in that range now for quite a few years. So if it's true that the government helped them cover fuel hedge losses in 2008/09, and that's a big if, wouldn't you say they are getting paid back? So, if the fuel hedge loss payments even happened, how can it be called a "subsidy".

I am not going to defend every item in that report because a lot of it is unproven, but it's besides the point anyway. If the airlines in the USA get their way it doesn't change the fundamental problem they face, and that fundamental problem is that the world's travel trends are changing. If they get their way and set up some protectionist structure that prevents certain airlines from serving more cities in the USA it just allows U.S. airline management to hide under the covers, so to speak, while the world changes around them. That outcome is what you should be afraid of because that is what will cause the decline of the U.S. airlines and the U.S. airline pilot profession long term.

Since you like reading reports, read Emirates latest annual report. It shows that only 11.4% of their revenue was from North America. To me, that is what U.S. airlines should be looking at. That means that they are generating 88.6% of their revenue from outside of North America. If I were a manager I would be going after a share of that instead of trying to protect an increasingly smaller percentage of global travel dollars.



Typhoonpilot