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The president of Emirates Group, Dubai's fast-growing airline, readily admits he was dismayed by what happened in Washington to DP World, the giant port operator that is one of Emirates' sister companies.
"It is rather a slap in the face," Maurice Flanagan, the president of Emirates, said during a recent interview here. Dubai executives, he said, thought they had a close relationship with the United States.
"Most of my senior Arab colleagues were educated in the States," he said, adding that one even gets up "in the middle of the night to watch basketball."
As one of Boeing's largest customers and a major buyer of General Electric jet engines, Emirates Group is the company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, best positioned to retaliate against the United States by taking its business elsewhere. But Flanagan said that is the farthest thing from his mind.
DP World was forced to agree to sell six port operations this month, after U.S. lawmakers raised security concerns. But executives at Emirates Group say they are not diverting orders to Boeing's archrival, Airbus.
They have pledged not to change their treatment of American companies and are forging ahead with ambitious expansion plans, which include arranging for direct flights from the Middle East to California, Houston and Chicago.
To appreciate the scope of the Dubai royal family's business ambitions, there may be no better gauge than Emirates Group. From a fleet of two planes that once flew only to Mumbai, India, and Karachi, Pakistan, it has ballooned in the past 21 years to 90 aircraft that cover territory from New York to Australia.
Thanks to cushy customer service at competitive fares and amenities like wide seats and hundreds of movies onboard, Emirates looks set to bypass the carrier it most resembles, Singapore Airlines, by the end of the decade, analysts estimate. By 2012, Emirates may even be the most popular long-distance airline in the world, they say, surpassing Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and British Airways.
Dubai is "perfectly located to be the global hub of this century," Flanagan said. "Look at a map of the world, with the Americas down one side, and China and Japan down the other. If you balance that all on a point, that point is Dubai."
Like most government-backed Dubai companies, the chairman of Emirates is a member of the royal family - in this case Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum - and run by an international mix of executives. Flanagan, who was a member of Britain's Royal Air Force and a British Airways executive, has been with Emirates since it started in 1985.
Emirates is part of a group of booming businesses founded by the Maktoum family that include real estate conglomerates, a new financial center, several investment funds and DP World.
In the next two years, Emirates plans to add 30 planes. Dubai's airport is expected to triple its capacity to handle at least 75 million passengers a year.
By 2010, Goldman Sachs estimates, Emirates will have more long-distance seats than British Airways or Lufthansa. "All the European carriers are set to suffer as a result," the Goldman Sachs report concluded.
Emirates, unlike most airlines, has posted a profit for 17 years in a row, and returns over $100 million a year to shareholders in dividends.
"Not only did the airline have to be profitable, it had to be top class," said Peter Hill, a former Emirates executive who now runs SriLankan Airlines. "In the culture of Dubai, there wasn't any second best."
But its rivals have long complained that the airline receives hidden government subsidies, a claim Emirates executives have always vehemently denied. "When we started in 1985, the rules were quite clear," Flanagan said. "The Sheik said, 'Here's $10 million, don't come back for more.' We get nothing special."
Since Emirates started releasing full financial data, analysts have found little to support the complaints. "An overview of the audited financial accounts contains no material surprises once one gets used to seeing consistent profits at an airline," UBS said in a recent report.
Emirates' success rest on several factors. The airline does not have the legacy costs of its American and European rivals, which include pension plans and benefits. It can rely on lower-cost labor, generally from Asia and India. Dubai has no income taxes, and its airport imposes relatively low operating costs.
Using its inexpensive airport as a hub, Emirates moves passengers long distances - the most profitable part of the business - from New York to Singapore, or Russia to Africa, always with a stop in Dubai. Often, passengers take advantage of the break to do some taxfree shopping, and perhaps stay a day or more in one of Dubai's glitzy hotels.
Emirates Group's growth has gone hand-in-glove with the construction of luxurious hotels and mind-boggling amusement parks in Dubai. The plans keep getting grander, potentially drawing more visitors, and more Emirates passengers. Under construction, for example, is the Dubailand theme park, expected to be twice the size of Walt Disney World in Orlando, with an indoor rain forest and a covered snow park.
"The government has done a great job stimulating travel to the region," said Jonathan Wober, an analyst with HSBC in London.
LONDON The president of Emirates Group, Dubai's fast-growing airline, readily admits he was dismayed by what happened in Washington to DP World, the giant port operator that is one of Emirates' sister companies.
"It is rather a slap in the face," Maurice Flanagan, the president of Emirates, said during a recent interview here. Dubai executives, he said, thought they had a close relationship with the United States.
"Most of my senior Arab colleagues were educated in the States," he said, adding that one even gets up "in the middle of the night to watch basketball."
As one of Boeing's largest customers and a major buyer of General Electric jet engines, Emirates Group is the company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, best positioned to retaliate against the United States by taking its business elsewhere. But Flanagan said that is the farthest thing from his mind.
DP World was forced to agree to sell six port operations this month, after U.S. lawmakers raised security concerns. But executives at Emirates Group say they are not diverting orders to Boeing's archrival, Airbus.
They have pledged not to change their treatment of American companies and are forging ahead with ambitious expansion plans, which include arranging for direct flights from the Middle East to California, Houston and Chicago.
To appreciate the scope of the Dubai royal family's business ambitions, there may be no better gauge than Emirates Group. From a fleet of two planes that once flew only to Mumbai, India, and Karachi, Pakistan, it has ballooned in the past 21 years to 90 aircraft that cover territory from New York to Australia.
Thanks to cushy customer service at competitive fares and amenities like wide seats and hundreds of movies onboard, Emirates looks set to bypass the carrier it most resembles, Singapore Airlines, by the end of the decade, analysts estimate. By 2012, Emirates may even be the most popular long-distance airline in the world, they say, surpassing Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and British Airways.
Dubai is "perfectly located to be the global hub of this century," Flanagan said. "Look at a map of the world, with the Americas down one side, and China and Japan down the other. If you balance that all on a point, that point is Dubai."
Like most government-backed Dubai companies, the chairman of Emirates is a member of the royal family - in this case Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum - and run by an international mix of executives. Flanagan, who was a member of Britain's Royal Air Force and a British Airways executive, has been with Emirates since it started in 1985.
Emirates is part of a group of booming businesses founded by the Maktoum family that include real estate conglomerates, a new financial center, several investment funds and DP World.
In the next two years, Emirates plans to add 30 planes. Dubai's airport is expected to triple its capacity to handle at least 75 million passengers a year.
By 2010, Goldman Sachs estimates, Emirates will have more long-distance seats than British Airways or Lufthansa. "All the European carriers are set to suffer as a result," the Goldman Sachs report concluded.
Emirates, unlike most airlines, has posted a profit for 17 years in a row, and returns over $100 million a year to shareholders in dividends.
"Not only did the airline have to be profitable, it had to be top class," said Peter Hill, a former Emirates executive who now runs SriLankan Airlines. "In the culture of Dubai, there wasn't any second best."
But its rivals have long complained that the airline receives hidden government subsidies, a claim Emirates executives have always vehemently denied. "When we started in 1985, the rules were quite clear," Flanagan said. "The Sheik said, 'Here's $10 million, don't come back for more.' We get nothing special."
Since Emirates started releasing full financial data, analysts have found little to support the complaints. "An overview of the audited financial accounts contains no material surprises once one gets used to seeing consistent profits at an airline," UBS said in a recent report.
Emirates' success rest on several factors. The airline does not have the legacy costs of its American and European rivals, which include pension plans and benefits. It can rely on lower-cost labor, generally from Asia and India. Dubai has no income taxes, and its airport imposes relatively low operating costs.
Using its inexpensive airport as a hub, Emirates moves passengers long distances - the most profitable part of the business - from New York to Singapore, or Russia to Africa, always with a stop in Dubai. Often, passengers take advantage of the break to do some taxfree shopping, and perhaps stay a day or more in one of Dubai's glitzy hotels.
Emirates Group's growth has gone hand-in-glove with the construction of luxurious hotels and mind-boggling amusement parks in Dubai. The plans keep getting grander, potentially drawing more visitors, and more Emirates passengers. Under construction, for example, is the Dubailand theme park, expected to be twice the size of Walt Disney World in Orlando, with an indoor rain forest and a covered snow park.
"The government has done a great job stimulating travel to the region," said Jonathan Wober, an analyst with HSBC in London.
LONDON The president of Emirates Group, Dubai's fast-growing airline, readily admits he was dismayed by what happened in Washington to DP World, the giant port operator that is one of Emirates' sister companies.
"It is rather a slap in the face," Maurice Flanagan, the president of Emirates, said during a recent interview here. Dubai executives, he said, thought they had a close relationship with the United States.
"Most of my senior Arab colleagues were educated in the States," he said, adding that one even gets up "in the middle of the night to watch basketball."
As one of Boeing's largest customers and a major buyer of General Electric jet engines, Emirates Group is the company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, best positioned to retaliate against the United States by taking its business elsewhere. But Flanagan said that is the farthest thing from his mind.
DP World was forced to agree to sell six port operations this month, after U.S. lawmakers raised security concerns. But executives at Emirates Group say they are not diverting orders to Boeing's archrival, Airbus.
They have pledged not to change their treatment of American companies and are forging ahead with ambitious expansion plans, which include arranging for direct flights from the Middle East to California, Houston and Chicago.
To appreciate the scope of the Dubai royal family's business ambitions, there may be no better gauge than Emirates Group. From a fleet of two planes that once flew only to Mumbai, India, and Karachi, Pakistan, it has ballooned in the past 21 years to 90 aircraft that cover territory from New York to Australia.
Thanks to cushy customer service at competitive fares and amenities like wide seats and hundreds of movies onboard, Emirates looks set to bypass the carrier it most resembles, Singapore Airlines, by the end of the decade, analysts estimate. By 2012, Emirates may even be the most popular long-distance airline in the world, they say, surpassing Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and British Airways.
Dubai is "perfectly located to be the global hub of this century," Flanagan said. "Look at a map of the world, with the Americas down one side, and China and Japan down the other. If you balance that all on a point, that point is Dubai."
Like most government-backed Dubai companies, the chairman of Emirates is a member of the royal family - in this case Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum - and run by an international mix of executives. Flanagan, who was a member of Britain's Royal Air Force and a British Airways executive, has been with Emirates since it started in 1985.
Emirates is part of a group of booming businesses founded by the Maktoum family that include real estate conglomerates, a new financial center, several investment funds and DP World.
In the next two years, Emirates plans to add 30 planes. Dubai's airport is expected to triple its capacity to handle at least 75 million passengers a year.
By 2010, Goldman Sachs estimates, Emirates will have more long-distance seats than British Airways or Lufthansa. "All the European carriers are set to suffer as a result," the Goldman Sachs report concluded.
Emirates, unlike most airlines, has posted a profit for 17 years in a row, and returns over $100 million a year to shareholders in dividends.
"Not only did the airline have to be profitable, it had to be top class," said Peter Hill, a former Emirates executive who now runs SriLankan Airlines. "In the culture of Dubai, there wasn't any second best."
But its rivals have long complained that the airline receives hidden government subsidies, a claim Emirates executives have always vehemently denied. "When we started in 1985, the rules were quite clear," Flanagan said. "The Sheik said, 'Here's $10 million, don't come back for more.' We get nothing special."
Since Emirates started releasing full financial data, analysts have found little to support the complaints. "An overview of the audited financial accounts contains no material surprises once one gets used to seeing consistent profits at an airline," UBS said in a recent report.
Emirates' success rest on several factors. The airline does not have the legacy costs of its American and European rivals, which include pension plans and benefits. It can rely on lower-cost labor, generally from Asia and India. Dubai has no income taxes, and its airport imposes relatively low operating costs.
Using its inexpensive airport as a hub, Emirates moves passengers long distances - the most profitable part of the business - from New York to Singapore, or Russia to Africa, always with a stop in Dubai. Often, passengers take advantage of the break to do some taxfree shopping, and perhaps stay a day or more in one of Dubai's glitzy hotels.
Emirates Group's growth has gone hand-in-glove with the construction of luxurious hotels and mind-boggling amusement parks in Dubai. The plans keep getting grander, potentially drawing more visitors, and more Emirates passengers. Under construction, for example, is the Dubailand theme park, expected to be twice the size of Walt Disney World in Orlando, with an indoor rain forest and a covered snow park.
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