KEY POINTS:
The Maktoum family behind Auckland International Airport suitor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise runs Dubai as a feudal system, keeping tight control of the economic powerhouse.
However, the family delegates management to foreigners with impressive CVs.
As one London newspaper said: "Imagine if Britain was known as Windsor plc and was ruled by the company's chief executive who gave orders to a board of hand-picked loyal subordinates and that decisions were settled by a single mobile phone call. That's how Dubai works."
The Maktoum men running Dubai are Muslim and dress in traditional attire.
They often have more than one wife and an interest in leisure activities which has put Dubai at the head of the world's horse racing thoroughbred breeding field.
The emirate is developing projects estimated to be worth US$100 billion ($129 billion).
Every big project has the Maktoum stamp on it and is headed by a family member.
Dubai's head, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum, is also the United Arab Emirates' Prime Minister.
He is Dubai's most powerful man and the empire builder whom business people have compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for having a bold vision and overseeing a rapid economic transformation.
He came to power last year when his older brother, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum, died of a heart attack at the Palazzo Versace Hotel on Australia's Gold Coast.
Sheikh Mohammad, the third of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's four sons, is said to either own or control the companies crucial to Dubai's success.
His property interests are held partly via Emaar Properties and include the distinctive Burj al-Arab tower on its own island in the Gulf, the new manmade Palm Islands development built on the coast of Dubai and Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building.
Sheikh Mohammad is also the head of Dubai Holding and its subsidiary Dubai International Capital, which owns the British tourist attraction Madame Tussaud's, and stakes in hotel chain Travelodge, Daimler, EADS (Airbus) and Doncasters, a British defence/aviation company.
Britain's Sunday Times called him "autocratic but decisive".
He is also one of the world's major figures in the thoroughbred industry.
A relative, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, runs the successful international Emirates airline and would ultimately be the man in charge if Dubai Aerospace gets control of Auckland International Airport.
He is Sheikh Mohammad's uncle and chairman of the Emirates airline, although as with most of the other Dubai businesses, this Maktoum family member has delegated responsibility for running things.
American Bob Johnson is the chief executive of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and Kjeld Binger is chief executive of DAE Airports, the division bidding for Auckland.
Emirates, the world's 10th largest airline, is winning praise for top-notch service and expanding its routes fast. Its chairman, Sheikh Ahmed, is credited with shrewdly developing Dubai as a hub linking Europe and the United States. His main worries are Middle East political instability and airlines' ability to buy longer-range aircraft.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem runs Dubai Ports World, an internationally successful venture which last year made a controversial bid to buy US ports. Last year, he was at the centre of a political firestorm from Washington.
Sultan Ahmed's "kingdom" is Jebel Ali, the world's largest man-made port, where US Navy ties up. The Middle East's largest port, it is 35km south of Dubai city.
