The man who controls it, Emirates head of corporate communications Boutros Boutros, says it is worth every dollar.

"I will tell you a story," the former business journalist says. "A few years ago we went to launch in Brazil. When we did our market research, we found Emirates was already the number one international airline in the country in terms of brand awareness, even though we had never flown a single plane there. I could not work out why this was so. Then we realised the answer was Kaka."

Kaka is the Brazilian soccer star who spent years at AC Milan - one of the European club giants to have the Fly Emirates logo on its uniforms.

"All the brand awareness we needed had been done by Kaka," Boutros says. "The AC Milan shirt, which was part of our European sponsorship portfolio, was also working for us in Brazil."

That logic has driven Emirates' latest sponsorship deal - its partnership with the Australian Open. Almost five years have passed since Emirates began negotiations to sponsor the Grand Slam, a move that was rebuffed by the event's organisers because of an existing deal with Virgin Australia.

Boutros spent four years fighting to land the deal.

He is a great believer in the power of sports sponsorship, which soaks up half of his $US700 million annual budget, and 1.5 per cent of the airline's annual turnover of $US21 billion.

Emirates has shirt sponsorship deals with soccer giants Real Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Paris St-Germain and Olympiakos. The soccer portfolio alone costs the airline more than $US100 million a year, dwarfing its spend on United States television advertising, which is estimated at just $US2.5 million annually.

In Australia, the Emirates logo adorns the Collingwood AFL jumper.

"I like uniform deals because of the human link," Boutros says. "Fans see a person wearing your logo on that uniform, which is much more powerful than just seeing a name on a sign at the stadium.

"That is also part of the reason why we are no longer a sponsor of FIFA and the World Cup, and why we are not a naming rights sponsor of events such as the tennis. We would prefer to have our name on the uniforms and worn by a person."

Few companies have relied so heavily on sport to market their brand as Emirates. Before the airline's launch into the Australian market in 1999, it struck deals with Collingwood, the Melbourne Cup carnival and the Australian cricket team. Its annual spend on sponsorships in Australia now is $17 million.

"In fact, we spend more on local sports in Australia than anywhere outside of our home in the UAE," Boutros says. "We consider Formula One, golf, tennis, as global sports. But in Australia we have deals such as the Collingwood one that recognise the unique nature of the local market."

With the Australian Open stitched up, Boutros says he will turn his attention to the Sydney market, where golf has been the primary focus.

"We have a heavy bias towards Melbourne on the sponsorship front, but that is because the city does events so well," he says. "There is a calendar of major events, and successive governments have backed it. I think NSW can learn a lot from how Victoria manages its events calendar."