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If Phoenix leaders want a flight to Dubai, the fastest growing airline in the Middle East will probably be part of that plan, city leaders and aviation experts say. 

But  23-year-old Emirates may be an unfamiliar name to many Arizona travelers.

Emirates has a hub at Dubai International Airport and  flies to nearly 100 destinations in  62 countries. It operates flights to New York and Houston, and in the fall, Los Angeles and San Francisco will join that list.

More U.S. cities are to come, said Nigel Page, senior vice president of commercial North American operations.

Emirates has a ten year expansion plan and future U.S. stops could include Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Washington D.C. and Chicago, he said.   

Dubai is one of several emirates that make up the country known as the United Arab Emirates. The  wealthy region is a growing financial center, brimming with skyscrapers and a growing list of U.S. companies that have established a presence there. 

While rising fuel prices are squeezing U.S. airlines, Emirates has several advantages, said Ilkers Baybars, dean of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Emirates is essentially a state-run airline that pays less for fuel than U.S. carriers, the business school dean said.

"They don't have that cost, so they can afford more cabin attendants... more expensive china," for example, he said.

Also, Emirates has a younger, more fuel efficient fleet, said Page, the Emirates executive. 

Then there's the cash factor, said aviation expert Mike Boyd of The Boyd Group. 

"They buy planes like you and I buy groceries," he said.  

Number out today from the Mortgage Bankers Association show the number of Arizona homeowners behind on their mortgage payments was down a bit during the first quarter of the year.

Unexpected good news considering foreclosures across metro Phoenix have continued to climb each month this year.

During the first three months of 2008, 5.35 percent of all Arizona mortgages were delinquent. That compares to 5.45 percent for the last quarter of 2007.

The delinquency rate on Arizona's subprime loans ticked down to  15.94  compared to 16.19 percent at the end of 2007.

Mortgage delinquencies are usually a precursor to foreclosures. But an early count of foreclosures in metro Phoenix during May shows the number of people losing homes continued to climb.