Diplomacy Takes to the Friendly Skies

1 HOUSTON TO DUBAI This one is all about oil. Emirates airline began this route in December--only three months before Halliburton announced its headquarters would move from the Texan city to Dubai

2 TEHRAN TO CARACAS Iran and Venezuela seem unlikely allies. But a flirtation that started with a mutual distaste for Yankee imperialists was consummated in March with a direct Iran Air flight between the countries

3 BALTIMORE TO KANGERLUSSUAQ A key cold war U.S. military base--now a commercial airport--will be the landing zone for what Greenland hopes will be armies of ecotourists traveling on Air Greenland starting in May

4 DUBAI TO SAO PAULO The Middle East and South America will have a second direct link, via Emirates, in October. The U.A.E. is bullish on biofuels, and Brazil happens to have a half-continent of arable land

5 VIENNA TO ERBIL Austrian Airlines opened Europe's first regular air connection to Iraq (Erbil is the Kurdish capital) in December. Austria's largest energy firm recently began negotiations on oil and gas exploration in Iraq