benwj wrote:Thats right herve.
Believe it or not, they actually have to borrow this money on the international market.
Even more alarming is the fact that they have to pay it back with interest.
Shock horror!
The EU whine can be translated thus:
But But...
We pay our staff more...
they are always on strike.
We pay corporate tax (thats if we make a profit, which we try not to),
Our airport makes us pay the same tax as they have to.
Our tickets are more expensive,
Our planes are old and crappy, and burn more fuel than Apollo 13,
Their IFE system is better than ours,
They WERE letting passengers carry water on the plane... but we put a stop to that!
They allow passengers to use their mobile phones instead of trying to make money from this service.
Our flight stewards are old whores and don't have perky breasts like theirs,
Our governemnt bails us out,
We can't fly thru volcanic ash.
The international financiers won't touch us with a barge pole,
We want a free market!!!... all to ourselves.
Agree with most of that Benwj, but, and isn't there always a but ...
There's a flaw in your starting point ...
The inequity lies in that Emirates (can't speak for Etihad) did not borrow from the International Markets to fund its aircraft, its uses State Export Credits to offset the initial down payments, a bit like "borrowing" money from your dad's wallet to put down on an order for a Ferrari 458 Italia, then it goes to the international markets, issues a bond under the "sovereign halo" credit rating against the future value of the delivered and operating aircraft.
This is not illegal but its questionable because the initial Export Credit has essentially been traded and then cashed via the bond market, and where then does it show up on the balance sheet ? My guess as "profit"
Well using that model - my aunt Ethel could run an airline in profit, however by most sets of accounting rules and regulations that qualifies as "state funding / subsidies"
The "government" probably takes its money back eventually via scheduled dividend payments but because it is all shielded behind ICD we only have the word of vested interests who tell us "we do not get government subsidies and I challenge anyone to prove it". Thats not a reasoned argument, its churlish.
This serves as further evidence, as if any more were required, as to why governance and transparency are the two main stumbling block for the UAE to overcome before it can become a global player, until then unfortunately Air France, Lufthansa, BA et al, have the moral high ground and the economic case that will probably force legislation in to the EU that will cut back Emirates penetration of the EU market on the grounds that it is uncompetitive and unfairly advantaged.
As for how the cabin staff look or perform, you make a fair case, but really in the big scheme of things who cares, Emirates are not far off hiring all of their flight attendants from some outsourcing farm in Chennai and paying them in Nakheel credits !!