Emirates, the world\'s biggest international passenger carrier, will hire up to 10,000 professionals this year to manage its growth, a senior official said. \"We will hire 10,000 people this year to manage our expansion and growth as 30 new aircraft join our fleet,\" Boutros Boutros, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice-President for Media Relations, Sponsorships and Events, told a gathering of top Indian management professionals on Saturday. Emirates Group, which also includes the ground handling and ticketing arm Dnata, has nearly 60,000 people on its payroll. The airline, which has a fleet of 171 aircraft, flies to more than 130 destinations. \"We have an orderbook of 235 aircraft worth $84 billion [Dh308 billion] at list prices including 70 A380s and the airline\'s network covers 95 per cent of the world\'s population,\" Boutros said. \"From Dubai, our airline reaches 6.6 billion people within 16 hours flying time.\" The airline is focusing on expanding to the Americas and India, where it operates 185 flights a week. The airline is ready to deploy more aircraft to India if need be, he said. Emirates launched flights to Dallas and Seattle within the last six weeks and is preparing to launch services to Washington DC, the airline\'s seventh gateway to the United States.