According to BusinessWeek.com (link below), Emirates Airlines is starting to eat the lunch of its European competitors on long haul international flights, in large part due to their big and growing fleet of Airbus A380s.  The European airlines are complaining to their governments that Emirates is skirting international airline treaties and needs to be reigned in.  But so far their pleas are falling on deaf ears because Emirates is one of Airbus’s best customers.  And as we all know, European governments have financial interests in Airbus.

Unintended consequences indeed.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186018462112.htm