Why are there so many flights...

Emp_Fab

...between the UK and the Middle East ?  If you look at www.Flightradar24.com it's incredible.  The traffic between the UK and places like Dubai, Bahrain, UAE etc is constant.  It rivals transatlantic traffic.  What's that all about then ?

boogieman

At a guess, lots of people going on holiday or working there? 

Flink_Poyd

Connecting flights to the Far East go though there quite a lot nowadays, roughly a mid point stop off. 

Nitefly

Flink_Poyd said:

Connecting flights to the Far East go though there quite a lot nowadays, roughly a mid point stop off. 

^^ This.

My daughter has just moved to New Zealand, her flight had connections at Dubai and Sydney.

Heathrow - Dubai was booked as a Qantas flight, but was serviced by Emirates.

Deadman

A vast percentage of the people I've ever worked with now work over there. It's big bucks and obviously tax free so a major attraction.

stickyfiddle

Combination of connecting flights, expats living here, and a lot of people flying between Europe and the ME for short-term work.

Between Emirates, Etihad and Qatar there's been a huge push to make the Middle East the primary transport hub between east and west

Emp_Fab

Doh !  I never thought about the connecting flights !  Thanks chaps.

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

Between Emirates, Etihad and Qatar there's been a huge push to make the Middle East the primary transport hub between east and west

Which is another reason there's no point in expanding Heathrow.

ToneControl

A lot of Indians travelling to and from home make connections there too 

ToneControl

Deadman said:

A vast percentage of the people I've ever worked with now work over there. It's big bucks and obviously tax free so a major attraction.

I've never seen any work advertised  at  or above London rates.
OK it's tax-free if you stay there all year, but  it's not big bucks is it?

goldtop

It's down to the Gulf state governments wanting to create worldwide brands. Build a huge airport way beyond the actual local demand, subsidise huge and posh airline fleets, control the rights to slots, codeshare the routes with prestige airlines, build the brand and then take it further (footie stadiums, T-shirts, etc).

LoFi

ToneControl said:

Deadman said:

A vast percentage of the people I've ever worked with now work over there. It's big bucks and obviously tax free so a major attraction.

I've never seen any work advertised  at  or above London rates.
OK it's tax-free if you stay there all year, but  it's not big bucks is it?

Really? I've been offered work there (IT consultancy) well over UK/London rates (even after allowing for the tax benefits), and a friend of mine has just moved there to work in finance at twice what she was earning in London (so over 3x by the time you factor in the tax).

mellowsun

There's no amount of money you could pay me to work out there 

ToneControl

LoFi said:

ToneControl said:

Deadman said:

A vast percentage of the people I've ever worked with now work over there. It's big bucks and obviously tax free so a major attraction.

I've never seen any work advertised  at  or above London rates.
OK it's tax-free if you stay there all year, but  it's not big bucks is it?

Really? I've been offered work there (IT consultancy) well over UK/London rates (even after allowing for the tax benefits), and a friend of mine has just moved there to work in finance at twice what she was earning in London (so over 3x by the time you factor in the tax).

I was asked by a very keen agent to quote  for  some IT work there (stuff where I had exactly done the same project here already),I started with  London rates and added 50%. No  reply.
I saw it advertised  a day later at  Northern England rates
I know that airline pilots there get no more than  UK ones

Sambostar

Its simple  the grass is always greener.

stickyfiddle

My wife and I are based in a Abu Dhabi. We both get roughly the same as in the U.K. But for 2 higher rate taxpayers together, that saves a lot of money after tax. For us it has meant we can save that money for a house deposit which we wouldn't have stood a chance of doing in London.

It's a nice place to live day to day, and the location combined with the airport hub thing makes it great jumping-off point for seeing a good chunk of the world. I've visited more countries in the last 3 years than I had in my entire life before that- in the last year and a bit we've been to India twice, Japan, Italy, Ukraine and we'all be in Egypt in March. Not to mention Oman and Kuwait for work (less fun but good "stuff to tell the grandkids" stuff). We simply couldn't have done that from the UK.

We have a flat we love within a 10 minute commute of work. That's all but impossible in London.

goldtop

How do you put up with the constant racism?