Do airlines in the middle east (like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad) pay the same for fuel as US-airlines do?

Question

Or do they just pay like 1/10 of the price in the USA?

And: If Emirates is flying from Dubai to Houston, do they pay more in Houston when they re-fill for the flight back (because Houston=USA), and pay less when they fill to fly to Houston (because Dubai= united arab emirates)?

Answer 1

Major airlines have national or world-wide accounts with fuel suppliers, so the price may vary from airline to airline, but the price at each airport is dependent on prevailing prices at that location.

So, to answer your question, Emirates will pay Houston pricing for fuel loaded in Houston, it just might or might not be higher than what Continental pays.

Fuel hedging has nothing to do with the actual purchase of fuel.  It is an investing activity, in which the airline buys hydro-carbon-related futures (could be jet fuel, crude oil, or other).  When prices are rising, the hedge fund turns a profit, and the airline offsets its reported fuel cost with the hedge profit.  If prices should ever drop, the opposite would occur.  Hedging is more of an accounting manuver, to allow the investment gains/losses to be reflected in operating expense.

Answer 2

The Airlines pay what ever the price of fuel is at the airport that they land at. All airlines. I should restate that. If the airline has fuel hedges then they have set up a prepayed price for the fuel. Some times airlines will figure out how much it cost to buy fuel at one airport and ferry fuel to another airport with higher fuel prices. It really has to be a big price advantage to make this work because fuel is weight and weight is money. Hope this helps.