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Emirates will begin charging an advance seat selection fee ahead of its standard 2-day check-in window for some of its Economy fares starting from Oct 3, the airline said. The new fee structure, ranging between Dh50 and Dh150, will apply to Economy Class Special and Saver fares, Emirates said. Seat charges will vary depending on the distance of the flight — short, medium, or long — and will be per passenger per sector. Those travelling on Economy Class Flex, Economy Class Flex Plus, Business Class or First Class will not be subjected to these charges for advance seat selection. The extra fees come along a wider trend by premier carriers to adopt some elements from low-budget airlines’ business model. Just recently, British Airways announced plans to charge for food on short-haul journeys. <br/>

Virgin Atlantic and technology partner LanzaTech have moved a stage nearer to developing a commercially viable low carbon jet fuel with the production of an initial 1,500 US gallons. The fuel, produced from waste gases, will be used for flight testing next year. The LanzaTech process involves capturing carbon from the carbon monoxide (CO) gas by-product from steel production. It is fermented to ethanol which is recovered to produce ethanol feedstock for a variety of products, including aviation fuel. Each gallon of ethanol is then converted to produce 1/2 gallon of aviation fuel. The process could be used to capture and recycle around 1/3 of the carbon that steel facilities would otherwise release into the atmosphere, Virgin Atlantic said. LanzaTech estimates that its process could be fitted to 65% of the world’s steel mills. <br/>