Yet another hectic year with six new aircraft integrated into the fleet (all Airbus A330-200s) and four of the older Airbuses (three A310-300s and one A300-600) phased out. By the end of the year, we had a fleet of 38 aircraft.

Significant milestones for International Affairs included the department playing an important part to help Emirates obtain traffic rights from the Japanese Government to introduce operations to Osaka (starting from October 2002); achieving additional capacity and one more point of call in India (Hyderabad) and new aeropolitcal arrangements with Spain and Mauritius.

In the field of airline co-operation, Emirates codeshares with United Airlines and South African Airways were expanded. The department continues to represent Emirates at the IATA Agency and Services Conferences, the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan and IATA Cargo Accounts Settlement System Committees.

Market Research continued to focus on customer satisfaction and product development.