To celebrate World Book Day, March 4, 2010, Emirates Airlines took thousands of travellers on a literary journey by orchestrating a mass book sharing initiative across its global network of more than 100 destinations.

Lucky passengers on board every Emirates flight departing the airline's Dubai hub today were presented a novel as part of the annual drive to encourage the joy of reading and promote literacy.

Cabin crew were integral to the operation, with more than 1000 of them arriving for duty with a stack of books written by authors who are part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, running from the 10th to 13th March.

Starting with the one am flight to Bahrain, they distributed books on more than 150 aircraft, until the last flight to depart Dubai on World Book Day - a Boeing 777 to Bangkok at 11pm.

Cabin crew also had the honour of telling passengers about the Emirates Literary Journey, explaining to readers that they were just taking the book on the first leg of its trip, and that they should pass it on to friend, family member, colleague or even a stranger in a café or metro station.

Instructions are also printed on the inside cover of each book, which includes a table for each reader to fill in the details which will track each stage of the book's ongoing journey, such as their name, and where and when they picked it up and then handed it on.

In addition, each book has an individual serial number and readers are encouraged to log on to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature website - emirateslitfest.com/literaryjourney - to share their views on the initiative, as well as comments on the novel they read.

Terry Daly - Emirates' Divisional Senior Vice President, Service Delivery - oversaw the complex plan which will see both Arabic and English-language authors reaching new audiences across the world.

He said: "It is incredible to think that our cabin crew today will be spreading the joy of reading to every corner of the globe. Emirates is proud that - through our staff - the World Book Day message of promoting literacy and the joy of reading will be delivered to almost 60 different countries."