Emirates Airline is aiming to become the world's biggest carrier, and it will take a lot more than the global financial downturn to stop it. Hard times? Not for the Dubai-based carrier which has just put in an order with Boeing for 30 more planes worth $9.1bn, to go alongside the 204 wide-bodied craft it already owns (worth $67bn).

While the rest of the industry has spent the year wringing its hands and fretting about load factors, Emirates recently reported its 22nd year of profit was just shy of a cool billion dollars, up 416 percent on the year before.

As president, Tim Clark has played a key role in the airline's development, reporting directly to its hands-on chairman HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum - who must be the happiest man in aviation.