By the end of the financial year we had a fleet of 91 aircraft, serving 83 destinations carrying 14.5 million passengers and one million tonnes of freight. By 2010 we will have 156 aircraft serving 101 destinations, carrying an estimated 26 million passengers per year. Such is the projected growth of Emirates.

The huge Boeing order consists of a mixture of the luxury Boeing 777-300ER and the 777-200LR, the world’s longest range airliner.

This order meant we now have a total of US$33 billion (Dhs121 billion) value of aircraft to be delivered to us in the next eight years, at an average of one per month. As Sheikh Ahmed rightly points out, no other airline in the history of commercial aviation has ever grown so relentlessly and returned a healthy profit, year on year.