What difficulty is that Metro man?
Hub based carriers such as EK and SQ funnel traffic in from all points on the network and disperse it on to various destinations. EK can operate several daily services to CDG as its passengers can go on to South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
QF passengers are going to be mostly for Australian destinations only. Are there enough of them who will choose QF over EK/SQ to make it worth while ?
The difference is when EK/SQ fly to a city they offer worldwide connections through their network and have a huge market. When QF fly to a city they offer Australia/NZ only and have to compete with the lower costs of Asian and Middle Eastern airlines.
A reduction of traffic between France and Australia would affect QF directly, possibly rendering the flight uneconomical, where as for EK this would only be a small overall reduction possibly compensated by increased traffic to other destinations. If the French suddenly prefer India over Australia, Emirates can still fly them QF can't.