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Emirates Trims US Flights After Trump Administration Curbs
Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline, said on Wednesday that it is cutting flights to the United States because of a drop in demand caused by heightened U.S. security measures and Trump administration attempts to ban travelers from Muslim-majority nations. (www.startribune.com) More...
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Emirates is just covering up the drop in business that started well before last fall's election. Their attempt to flood the market with government-backed cheap fares has not worked, so they're looking for a scapegoat. And Etihad says it has seen no drop in its U.S. business recently, another sign that Emirates' move is driven by economics instead of politics.
Yep, it's always the" bottom line" that's the decision driver.
Amen to that.
What EK does has seemed inscrutable for the last many years. Doubtless a few egos ran amok in garnering attention with ordering more A380's than they ever reasonably needed - one can make a case for propping up any prognosis if you crunch the numbers you like long enough. That much said, making Dubai the hub it is has been a meritorious accomplishment, if not the stuff of miracles. And Trump's cynical moves in furtherance of Islamophobia in support of his chewing tobacco base was never going to result in good stuff. Confluence of narcissism, opportunism and idiocy.
Gotta laugh. Emirates had been asking Seattle to build an A380 capable gate, which they have refused to do. Turns out Emirates couldn't even fill two 777's for Seattle. I always wondered just how many people were itching to go from Seattle to Dubai, anyway. I understand most of them were headed for India, but still...You can't blame this on an ineffective executive order and the inability to bring laptops aboard. Sheesh!
Why not?
Because this has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with economics. If it did have to do with politics, Etihad would be complaining about losses too.
