Emirates has become the first airline to hit the coveted one‎ million follower mark on Instagram, positioning the Dubai-based airline as the largest transportation brand on the popular photo and video-sharing platform.

Recently named the world’s most valuable airline brand, Emirates launched its Instagram channel in November 2013. In less than three years, the airline’s diverse and engaging content on Instagram has generated over 5.8 million likes and comments. From sports, lifestyle and travel, to adventure and food, Emirates uses the channel to tell visual stories that embody what the brand stands for: connecting people with what they love.

Creative activations such as its hugely popular “Emirates Cabin Crew Instagrammers” campaign - where six members of the airline’s cosmopolitan cabin crew community exclusively took over the Emirates Instagram channel to showcase their life, travels and experiences - generated over 1 million likes and comments in less than two months.

“As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Instagram is a great platform for us to share inspiring visual content about our people, interesting aspects of our operations, places to see, and things to do while travelling. Emirates has grown its Instagram following organically, and we are proud to hit the 1 million followers milestone,” said Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president, corporate communications, marketing & brand.

Aside from its recent Instagram milestone, Emirates has also become the first airline to hit 500,000 followers on LinkedIn. This positions the airline as the most followed travel brand in the world on the professional social media network as well as the most followed brand in the Middle East. With a combined community size of over 11 million users across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram, Emirates has set the bar for engagement, not only in the airline category but amongst other lifestyle brands.

“Our engaged and growing audience on social media reflect the deep-rooted connection that our customers and fans have with the Emirates brand. We would like to thank all of our fans for their support. We will work hard to continue surprising and delighting them with relevant, entertaining, and inspiring initiatives,” Boutros added.

To thank its 1 million Instagram followers, Emirates has launched a month-long global competition on Instagram with flight tickets and goodie bags up for grabs. To participate, users need to upload a photo or video on Instagram featuring Emirates, using the hashtag #ILoveEmirates and mention @emirates for a chance to win a pair of Economy Class tickets to any one of Emirates’ 150 destinations, or one of five goodie bags featuring products and merchandise from the Emirates Official Store. – TradeArabia News Service