I had no idea US pilots were leaving the country in droves. I guess it makes sense. All the bankruptcies in the US airline business, pay cuts, frozen pensions, eroded job security and increases in monthly flight hours are not exactly benefits of the job.

This Time article, titled International Departures, describes the mood among pilots working in the US as not exactly filled with motivation. Many US pilots have already switched to working for international carriers, where they can still be treated like "upper-level managers, with something they feel has long been missing in the US: respect."

Dubai-based Emirates, for example, expects to hire 540 pilots this year. Half the applicants are Americans, compared with just 7% of its current pilots. Over the past four years, over 100 US pilots have been lured by Emirates and their generous benefits package, including over 40 days of vacation and guaranteed annual raises.

I wonder what Kent will say about this trend. Any insights?

Dubai's Emirates airline just started revealing some plans for its A380 configurations. They're the second customer for Airbus's giant airship with delivery slated for later this year. And it looks like they're going to try to beat Singapore Air, the first customer, in sheer ridiculousness of their first class product.

With showers. Yes, first class travelers on the new, highly-coveted Emirates A380 routes will soon be able to take a shower while they're flying in the world's skies. The service is slated to unroll on the new New York - Dubai A380 route scheduled for October 1, but eventually will be augmented into all of their super jumbo jets.

I'm curious as to whether this is going to be a high-water pressure, multi-head luxury shower or a tiny RV-style drizzle of water from the ceiling.

To support this service, Emirates plans to haul an extra TON of water on the aircraft, thus as the Times Online reports, increasing the carbon output by an extra 25 tons. Baffling. But as many airlines are wagering these days, the real money lies in the business class product. We cattle will pay anywhere around $1,000 for a flight between New York and Dubai, but each business class ticket should run around $18,000.

So much for being eco-friendly.

I swear every time I read something about the United Arab Emirates development plans, I am amazed. Last week, I read about Masdar, the greenest city in the world, being built in UAE.

Today, I stumbled upon the plans for Dubailand, the world's biggest amusement park in the making. Currently, the largest amusement park in the world is the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the US with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Check out these stats about Dubailand:

• It will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles sq.)
• The estimated price tag is $20 billion
• The site will have 7 themes: Theme parks, culture & art, science & planetariums, sports & sports academies, well-being & health, shopping & retail and resorts & hotels
• It will have a total of 45 mega projects
• Dubailand expects a footfall of 40,000 visitors a day and 15 millions visitors a year once fully operational
• It will have a minimum of 55 hotels within its geographical location

Doesn't it sometimes seem that the world tends to copy the worst things about America?

It is easy to be oblivious to events happening in Dubai, simply because of the number of them happening throughout the year. Most of them are hyped in the media to give you nausea (e.g.GITEX), or they are events that you go to just to be seen (e.g.Dubai World Cup).

One exception is the Dubai Air Show. This year, it will be held from November 11-15 and will host: 850 exhibitors from over 50 countries;140 aircrafts on display across 117 indoor and outdoor pavilions, and a mind-blowing display of fighter planes zooming across the sky, making the event a dream come true for anyone remotely interested in the aviation industry.

Unless you are in the corporate sector, it's actually quite hard to get hold of passes for the show -- they are normally sold out in advance. This year (the 10th), the biannual show will run for the last time at the Airport Expo, and Diana Ross has been invited to perform at the gala dinner. However, unlike other events, unfortunately there is no raffle to win a plane yet (it's normally easier with computers and cars), but I will not be surprised if they introduce that in the years to come.

In 2009, the air show will move to grounds of Dubai World Central -- the US$33 billion, 14-square kilometer aviation hub currently under construction. When that happens, Dubai will yet again add another few superlative tags to its list as then it will be the world's largest air show, and the aviation hub will be the world's largest international airport.

[Via Gulf News]

When the Christmas holiday season rolls around I do my part to spread the holiday cheer by putting cards in the mail to all my loved ones and co-workers from past and present. Since I can't supply the world with gifts I find cards usually suffice for most, but there was one Christmas I remember feeling crushed. A girlfriend of mine who I'd known from high school called me after receiving the card only to say, "Sorry, I don't celebrate Christmas." I was stunned. What did she mean she didn't celebrate Christmas? She had when we were classmates, but times had changed and with her marriage she converted to Islam. Christmas no longer existed in her world. Fine, I thought! I'd never send her another Christmas card or anyone else again. Bah-humbug! Instead I would send Seasons Greetings cards and if anyone made so much as a yelp then they'd get a lump of coal! Simple enough, I think. Can't we all live harmoniously during such a harmonious time?

The answer is 'yes' in Dubai. In this Go World Travel piece on Christmas in Dubai the author takes us through the Wafi City Mall where she finds a 50-foot tall Christmas tree in the lobby and Santa's Village upstairs. Every kind of Christmas design and decoration you could find or imagine from the Western world was in Santa's Village. Elves, gingerbread houses, penguins and polar bears all hung out. Dubai is said to be full of surprises, but this was one the writer and even I was blown away by reading. Dubai's majority are Sunni Muslim, however it is the only emirate to accommodate foreign minorities. Go figure. I never would have thought something like this, but the story makes it real and is an awesome read should you find yourself wondering how Christmas is celebrated in other parts of the world.

Perhaps I should even forward it to my girlfriend.