Interesting, thanks!
Edit: just found a quote that made me laugh. It was posted on A.net as a reply to a article from Qatari's Al Baker:
Quoting g500 (Reply 3):
If Emirates and Etihad had to rely on O&D traffic alone, oh where would we be now
They'd probably be called Gulf Air, who had a head start, geographically, on the then fledgling EK, but did not have people smart enough to see where the future would lie