Etihad Airlines captain Jean Pierre Tenud flies the Union Jack from the A330-200 before the inaugural Manchester–Abu Dhabi flight

The Sheraton Doha Hotel & Resort’s Upali Niyarepola, Gerhard Foltin, Kurt Viehmann, Shoukry Hussain and Graham Northcott, with their trophies at the QAFCO Flower & Vegetable Show

Filmstar Amitabh Bachchan, with Saeed Al Naouba, CEO, DSF/DSS announcing the IIFA Awards at a press conference in Dubai

Basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters returned to Dubai after 15 years  for a show at Al Nasr Sports Club. Seen here with the management team at the Mövenpick Hotel, Bur Dubai

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker ‘dots the lion’s eye’ following the arrival of the airline’s inaugural flight from Doha to Hong Kong

Rocco Forto, CEO, Rocco Forte Hotels (right)
at the Beach Rotana Hotel & Towers Abu Dhabi on a recent visit

Rotana chairman Nasser Al Nowais, being presented with an award for the region’s most innovative hotel brand during the recent Horeca Hospitality Awards 2006 in Lebanon

Singer Robbie Williams pulls a face during a recent concert in Dubai, where he stayed at the Fairmont Hotel

On behalf of the Doha Mariott’s Pearl Lounge Club, the hotel’s F&B director John Louie picks up a plaque for the Best Bar & Lounge in Doha at the Qatar Today Restaurant Awards

Blowing one: at the first anniversary celebrations of the Eye of the Emirates Qanat Al Qasba in Sharjah

Emirates’ Ghaith Al Ghaith and Salem Obaidalla, with TK Burman, principal secretary tourism, Government of West Bengal, cut a cake to celebrate the launch of the airline’s six-flights-a-week service to Kolkata in India

Bateaux Dubai hosted Virgin Atlantic chairman Sir Richard Branson onboard during the launch celebrations of the airline’s direct flights from London to Dubai;
(left) Branson planting the Union Jack on ‘Great Britain’, part of Nakheel’s
The World islands