Oblaaspop, the number of ex pats working/living in any country can hardly be used as the yardstick as to the number of landing slots to be awarded to any particular nation, if this logic prevailed then Britain and the USA would have all the slots at every airport in Canada. The fact is the UAE just cant function without ex pats, few of whoom would chose to live there if it wernt for the money, now that they have closed the base they have no poker chips to play with, I hope we kick them out of our airspace untill they learn to behave like adults and not spoilt kids in a sandbox.{Pun intended} Im sure that some of the ex pats fear reprisals against them if we do boot them out, they all knew {As I did} before they went there that there is precious little justice in their petty little world, so get used to it, its the norm in the Middle East.