Australian flights high on Emirates' wish list

I don't believe QF has complained about not having access to use DXB as a transit location to Europe. I believe their complaints are about the level of government subsidies they claim EK receive. Now there are plenty of people who would argue that QF also obtains government assistance by way of route protection etc.

Other airlines complain that EK receives government support in terms of cheap money (low interest loans), cheap fuel, tax breaks etc. They also have low labour costs for staff based in Dubai. The other airlines (including QF) complain that these things allow EK to operate with artificially low cost base. They also complain that EK is dumping capacity on routes like trans-Tasman, operating them at or below cost in order to hurt the other operators. EK argue that they are just maximising their fleet and staff utilisation by offering an alternate product into that market.

So there would no relief for the complaints if QF was to operate to Europe through DXB. I would suggest they are better to continue using SIN, BKK and HKG as transits to Europe since they gain more non-transit traffic than they would to/from DXB.

You can draw your own conclusions about the validity of the complaints.