Emirates, the Dubai-based international airline, beat off stiff competition from the travel industry to win the Best Exhibitor Award for the Middle East section of the ITB Travel Fair in Berlin. ITB is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious travel fairs and the international travel community is always out in force to impress at this important event.

Chosen for its design, as well as the service and activities on the stand, the Emirates exhibit is shaped like an Airbus A380 superjumbo. The A380 is the world’s first double decker aircraft and Emirates is by far the largest customer for this aircraft, with 45 on order which they will start to receive from October 2006.

The Emirates stand, which dominates the ITB show, took 20 men 10 days to erect. It is constructed from steel and weighs some 30 tonnes, is fully air-conditioned and has two floors including a majlis (meeting area) for VIP visitors.

Emirates Group chairman HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, who led the delegation of senior Emirates staff who have been meeting buyers, travel agents, tour operators, hoteliers, and government tourism officials at the show, had this to say of the award: “We are very proud to have won the award for Best Exhibitor for the Middle East section.

“We like to make an impact at these shows and we feel that the quality of effort we put into our stand reflects the high quality of effort that is apparent at every level of our operation.

“As the airline industry’s biggest customer for the A380, we are incredibly excited about the arrival of the aircraft next year and we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to link ourselves with the A380, which we believe will play a very significant role in the future of the aviation industry.”

The Emirates stand was selected as the winner by judges from the Cologne Business School, ahead of Qatar Airways and Qatar which came in second and third respectively. The award was presented to Emirates sales manager Germany Volker Greiner by P. Klose of the Cologne Business School.

Emirates operates three direct flights each week between Dubai and Malta, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, on Airbus A330-200. Flights from Malta to Dubai fly via Tripoli.