Emirates, an airline that did not even exist two decades ago, is now the fastest-growing international airline in the world. Few other carriers would have both the nerve and the cash to spend pounds 12bn on dozens of Airbus and Boeing planes. Buying while no one much else is, as has been mentioned here before, can be a rewarding business. Playing one manufacturer off against the other helps to force the price down even further and, in turn, feeds through to lower costs, cheaper tickets and fuller planes.

The airline has built up a substantial fleet of Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s. From a distance, they are hard to tell apart: each is a wide-bodied, twin-engined jet. Plane-spotters will point out the dinky little winglets sprouting from the Airbus’s wings. As a business-class passenger there is little to choose between them. Turn left as you enter either aircraft, and you enter a cabin with seven comfortable seats in each row.

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Turn right into economy, though, and the experience is very different. The Airbus has eight seats abreast, making the wide- bodied aircraft feel about as spacious as any of us have the right to expect in the cheap seats these days.

The internal diameter of the Boeing’s cabin is 19 inches wider than the Airbus, the breadth of an economy-class seat. Yet Emirates squeezes in not one but two extra passengers in each row. While every other scheduled airline that I know of with Boeing 777s has installed nine economy seats abreast, the Dubai-based airline reaches double figures.

The extra seat in each row has not unduly affected Emirates’ ability to win awards; it regularly figures among the top three long- haul carriers, along with Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. But informed economy travellers heading from Heathrow to Dubai have, until this month, opted for the 10.30pm departure: the only one of the three daily flights to be operated by an Airbus. Or so it was. Emirates announced last week that, to meet extra demand, the A330 has been replaced by a 777. If you yearn for the wide-open spaces of an Airbus, head instead for Birmingham or Manchester for that flight to Dubai. Your girth will be less constrained - and you are 25 per cent more likely to get a window seat.

AIRLINE SPONSORSHIP of football teams is a risky investment, especially when relegation looms. Headlines like “West Brom for the drop” or “Sunderland going down” do not sit comfortably in proximity to an airline’s name. Even so, over four seasons Emirates is ploughing about a Boeing’s worth of cash into Chelsea FC; if you are one of those lucky enough to get a window seat, you can often see the Stamford Bridge ground on the approach to Heathrow.