Well, good luck to them, but how developed is Abu Dhabi compared to Dubai?
It seems to be well behind DXB in its development as a major tourism and business centre. If they want to fill this kind of capacty, they need to develop some local traffic. I'm not sure there's that much there, but then again, I doubt if they're too concerned about breakeven loads and that kind of thing.
I see EY as being a much bigger threat to the established carriers than to EK (yes, I know EK is established! I mean BA/QF etc.). How long before some bright spark in EY says: I know, let's fly from here to SYD/MEL/PER/AKL and we can established a hub for through traffic to LHR. And who suffers there? EK? Possibly; but much more likely BA/QF etc.