WK- I agree with u that it's independent per say..but end of the day if u're carrying the flag of the country on your tail than it's not 100% independent...n paying the gov lots of $$$ in the past is nothing new...all investors would want $$$ back for their investments, whether it's in the form of $$$ or indirect invesment back into its ecomony. if emirates was fully independent,it would have been listed on the DFM long ago!!! and the reason its not yet is for not wanting to disclose to the public sensitive issues about the company. end of the day if EK goes down(which of course that would never happen) the gov. will rescue it...which gov.(UAE or AUH or DXB) only ppl behind the action know...