Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

Interesting thing in the Times today about the Dubai-based airline Emirates. Seems that Emirates and its chairman like their airplanes big and are essentially keeping Airbus’ a380 afloat. The a380 is a super gigantic plane that pretty much seats my entire high school* and is the basket into which Airbus is putting most all of its eggs.

Now there have been plenty of stories about Dubai and how you can go skiing in the desert and all. But this one’s interesting for a couple of reasons. Not only has Emirates ordered nearly three times as many a380s as the next guy. But the government of Dubai also just today bought a 3% stake in Airbus’ parent company, EADS.

Emirates chairman Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum wants to make Dubai the major hub between West and East. Is it gonna work? I don’t like the middle seats, myself, and it would seem to be tough to avoid that on a plane that seats 550 people. But what do I know? I don’t have $82 billion to toss around on a bunch of airplanes and airplane makers.

*Of course, I’m Small Town, Texas through and through, so maybe that’s not as impressive as it sounds.