emirates

Dubai's fast-growing airline Emirates kicked off the region's biggest airshow Sunday with an order for 50 Boeing 777s, which the U.S.-based aircraft maker described as its biggest single order in dollar terms in history.

The bailout or handout from Abu Dhabi or whatever one wishes to call this transfer of money was necessary to shore up the reputation of the Emirates.

The debt crisis could be a way for Abu Dhabi to demand greater control over Dubai, and perhaps over all the members of the emirates federation.

Plane maker Boeing Co. says it has delivered Dubai-based Emirates' 78th 777 aircraft.

The global financial crisis has come to the Gulf emirates, and to its once-booming real estate sector.