One would think that Maurice Flanagan’s spacious office in the boxlike building that serves as Emirates Airlines’ headquarters in Dubai would be filled with nothing but aviation mementoes and awards. Mr. Flanagan, after all, is group president, vice chairman, and a founder of the 20-year-old carrier, which ranks among the world’s five most profitable and 20 largest airlines. But his office in this Persian Gulf city has rows and rows of cricket bats encased in glass displays.

Cricket bats?

“I’m a great enthusiast, and I used to be pretty good at the game once upon a time,” Mr. Flanagan said. “And these aren’t ordinary bats.”

The bats are autographed by players from all 10 nations that play “test” cricket, the highest level of the game authorized by the London-based International Cricket Council. Many of these matches are, in fact, sponsored by Emirates Airlines, an example of how it’s extending its brand globally even as it expands its routes. The airline currently flies to 78 destinations in 55 countries, boasts a modern fleet of 75 planes – which is being doubled – and has 800 pilots, nearly 5,000 cabin crew, and 10,000 ground staff from more than 115 nations. Its non-stop flights to New York, which were inaugurated in June 2004, are already profitable.

“We’ve been profitable almost from the day Emirates started operations two decades ago as an airline serving the region,” the 76-year-old Mr. Flanagan told The New York Sun. “It’s been an airline of huge diversity right from the start. And, I might add, Emirates’ character and global vision is not unlike that of America, with its rich history of cultural diversity and cooperation.”

Mr. Flanagan, a sturdy man with silver hair that falls on his wide forehead, is himself an exemplar of that diversity. A graduate of the University of Liverpool, he served with the British Royal Air Force and then British Airways for many years before coming to Dubai in 1978 to help run what was a backwaters airport in this emirate, one of seven that constitutes the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

“I came here for the best of reasons – money,” Mr. Flanagan said, with a broad smile. The money was earned not only through managing the local airport but also from stints in nearby Abu Dhabi – the U.A.E.’s capital – Bahrain, and Colombo, Sri Lanka. He wasn’t just another white sahib in a land of browns. He did lots of grunt work in sales, cargo operations, marketing, and air-traffic management. “Since I had no secretary in those days and had to produce briefing papers, I even learned to type,” he said.

“I became an airline all-rounder,” Mr. Flanagan said, using a cricket term that denotes someone who’s capable of both batting and bowling – in other words, a man for all seasons. “What it means is that nothing that comes up in the field astonishes me. An all-rounder not only needs to be versatile, he needs to be disciplined. His team often depends on him.”

Mr. Flanagan’s reputation as a disciplined, versatile manager earned him an invitation from Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family, to help found Emirates Airlines. There were sceptics who didn’t think that the emirate of Dubai – which has little oil of its own and which has traditionally been a trading post – could sustain an international carrier. Mr. Flanagan said that the ruling Al-Maktoum family invested only $10 million in the venture, an amount that’s been paid back “several fold” since.

Indeed, sales in 2004 were nearly $4 billion, and profits were almost $450 million, a record and almost double the $247 million profit that Emirates recorded in the 2002-03 financial year – which represented an increase of 94% over the previous year. Emirates carried more than 12 million passengers in 2004.

“The airline is totally self-reliant financially,” Mr. Flanagan told the Sun. “We always had to be market-driven to survive, winning passengers and cargo customers the old-fashioned way – one at a time.” He often shows up unannounced at Dubai’s sprawling airport – which is undergoing a $6 billion expansion – to check up on how Emirates’ ground personnel serve passengers. The airport, which now gets 25 million passengers annually, is expected to draw 75 million within a decade, making it one of the world’s two or three busiest (Atlanta’s Hartsfield currently gets nearly 80 million passengers a year).

Emirates’ profitability and cash reserves have enabled Mr. Flanagan and his management team to be ambitious about buying new aircraft. Emirates’ current all wide-bodied fleet of 75 planes is among the youngest in the skies, with an average age of just three years. Currently on order are 103 new aircraft worth $26 billion, including the new ultra long-haul Airbus A340-500 for the New York route and 26 Boeing 777-300ERs.

Mr. Flanagan points out that Emirates was the first airline to order the revolutionary A380 double-decker in 2001 and will be the launch carrier for the innovative A340-600 HGW. Next year, Emirates will receive the first of 45 A380-800s on order, which makes it the largest buyer of the yet-to-fly super jumbo aircraft.

In making such purchases and undertaking decisions about route expansion, Mr. Flanagan is certainly aided by the fact that the management culture of the airline is unencumbered by vast layers of bureaucracies. Three division presidents report to him, and he reports to the chairman, Sheikh Ahmed. “We have no board meetings,” Mr. Flanagan said. “We don’t have non-executive directors.”

This style of lean management elicits praise from analysts at Goldman Sachs, who contend that, at Emirates’ current growth rate, the airline will overtake British Airways as the world’s biggest carrier in five years.

Such growth is occurring in tandem with Dubai’s bid to become an international commercial capital. Everywhere in this city, buildings and technology parks are sprouting, offering what Mr. Flanagan calls “a scale the like of which the world has not seen before.”

Part of the reason why Dubai is flourishing is its open skies policy. More than 110 international airlines fly in and out of this city. Mr. Flanagan believes that more countries should adopt an open skies policy.

“At a time of rapid globalization, where a more liberal trade regime is essential for spurring economic growth worldwide, a policy of open skies can only help,” he said.

Mr. Flanagan returned to his cricket metaphors.

“It’s a world of fierce competition that we live in,” he said. “It’s a new game, and players in the airlines industries had better be prepared for a tough game. Emirates is ready to go out there and bat.”