There were rumours about that on the Emirates thread a few years ago, possibly due to Mr Clark's rather cryptic suggestion that their next UK destination "could be north of the border or further west" - but nothing came of this (obviously). A Mid East route is something BFS have supposedly been pursuing (as they should) and must be likely to happen "sometime". With EK wanting to start 100 new cities in the next decade etc......
I do wonder what EK will do re the inevitable (eventual) expansion of their Dublin route. Would they
- upgauge one or other of the flights
- start a third daily
- or start BFS, maybe sub-daily and/or possibly timed to complement the existing two flights and provide more choice for passengers both sides of the border? I'm sure BFS would bend over backwards to have them (as they should). And I take it it would be classed as a long haul flight and thus exempt from APD?
They'll be watching the number of pax connecting in GLA with Flybe closely.
Not just GLA.... personally I've connected to EK in BHX and to QR in LGW and LHR. Question is, are there enough such pax? I'd be more optimistic if EK had smaller aircraft to start routes to smaller cities, but IIRC soon their smallest aircraft will be a 77L? Saying that, they started NCL (an airport only slightly larger than BFS and much smaller than BFS+BHD) on a 332 and now appear to be doing very well with a daily 77W. And NCL has to compete with MAN/EDI/GLA.
Must say I wouldn't want to see this happen and then fail, I'm happy to be patient until the local market is ready for it