Shnowzer Is on the right track.
This has nothing to do with dick swinging or A v B, it's simple number crunching.
I have relatives in the oil business there, and it's bleak times. If you all hadn't noticed, companies and institutions pay for the majority of the punters to fly on the top deck, in various forms.
Layoffs in the majors such as Chevron, Exxon, etc is literally in the thousands. They buy the upstairs seats. That pays ALL our wages. All this filters up and down. We live in a oil industry hub. Think about it.
If EK is bleeding on a route, any route, I hope, and know, that there's someone with their finger on the button to stem the flow.
That flow affects all of us.
We'll all be bitching in a few months time about the bonus.
This is one of the decisions that "they" make to try and get us one, because they want one too.
Don't forget, it's not only us at stake, it's the dudes that look after this sort of **** as well.
We're all in this together.