Five in a row for Emirates at the BMW Asian Open 2008

This year also marks Emirates' fifth anniversary of its services to Shanghai, its first destination on mainland China.

Emirates will once again be the Official Airline to the BMW Asian Open, the first-ever tri-sanctioned - Chinese Golf Association, Asian Tour and European Tour - event in China, which will be held from April 24th to 27th at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club.

With a prize purse of $2.3m, the tournament has attracted a stellar line-up of world-class golfers, including Majors champions Retief Goosen, Michael Campbell and Greg Norman; Dubai-based Henrik Stenson, winner of this tournament in 2006; European ace Miguel Angel Jiménez and defending champion Raphaël Jacquelin. Chinese hero Wen-chong Zhang and China's golfing trailblazer Lian-wei Zhang are looking forward to competing against the world's best players in front of their home crowd.

The Emirates Spectator Charity Hole-in-One Challenge has become a traditional part of the BMW Asian Open, with proceeds from the competition being donated to Project Hope, a social non-profit charity that seeks to help school dropouts.

During the Pro-Am tournament on 23rd April, Emirates will be sponsoring the Pro-Am Charity Closest to the Pin Challenge, donations to Project Hope automatically qualify amateur golfers to win one Emirates Business Class return ticket to Dubai. Emirates will be offering a number of their VIP guests the chance to play with some of the world's leading golfers during the Pro-Am.

Emirates will again host two private golf clinics for its key customers and partners as well as the international school children - an excellent opportunity for amateurs and young golf enthusiasts to gain knowledge and application of proper techniques from renowned golfers.

Edwin Lau, Emirates' Vice President, Greater China, said: 'It is a great pleasure to once again support the BMW Asian Open for what will be the fifth consecutive year; this is also the year that we are celebrating five years since Emirates began flying to China, with our non-stop Dubai to Shanghai route.

'The BMW Asian Open helps us to support the community of Shanghai and China, one of our most dynamic markets. In addition to our double daily service to Shanghai, Emirates serves China with a double daily flight to Beijing and as from 1st July we will begin non-stop services to Guangzhou.'

Emirates has an impressive portfolio of golf sponsorships and is the Official Airline of 10 golf tournaments around the world, which in addition to the BMW Asian Open includes: Dubai Desert Classic, Dubai Ladies Masters, Malaysian Open, Hong Kong Open, BMW International Open, Austrian Open, Volvo Masters of Asia, Hero Honda Open and the Australian PGA Championship. Emirates also sponsors a diversity of world-class sport events such as football, tennis, rugby, and horse racing.