EK and the rest have traditionally made all their money shuttling around Gulf workers. The vast majority of their flights are to the home countries of these people. As far as the U.S. and Canada, EK has really created a South Asian feed where one had never existed before. Of the dozens of flights that I have taken from the U.S. on the ME3, almost every passenger is South Asian. I would guess that the L.A. flights feed Persians back to Iran. These airlines are capitalizing on the desires of our immigrant citizens to see family.

BTW, if anyone is being subsidized in Dubai, it would be EK subsidizing the local government, not the other way around. Just my 2cents.

Expand to what market? You do know that there are a couple of billion people in Asia, and not just in the Far East.

EK does offer a pension scheme, how it works I don't remember.