As already pointed out, Emirates does not operate on a level playing field against other airlines. Many of the EU countries opened up their skies to them and now their large carriers are sounding the rallying cry and trying to get their governments to do something about it (France, Germany, England, and others).
Emirates has dangled this carrot of service to YYC, YUL, and YVR if they get the additional rights. Sounds pretty cool huh? You can hop on an Emirates jet with hot FA's and fly non-stop to Dubai. What's the catch? Due to their predatory pricing (thanks to many factors they don't disclose unlike other public airlines) a city like YYC would probably lose flights to Europe that are currently being served by:
-Air Canada (Frankfurt and London Heathrow)
-British Airways (London Heathrow)
-Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
-KLM (Amsterdam)
So for the addition of one more non-stop intercontinental in the YYC network we would probably lose most of these existing services. Companies that are playing on an even field and competing with one another.
Or you could go and hunt down the real aviation websites (where pilots, FA's, and mechanics post) and read some of the stories of the grime that is just underneath Emirates squeeky clean appearance.
I'm glad we are standing up to them. We can also give 12 months notice that we are ending the bi-lateral (which includes overfly rights) and that would royally screw their operations into the USA.
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