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British Airways passengers paying the lowest fares on European flights will be kept back at the departure gate until everyone else has boarded the plane. On 12 December, the carrier will introduce a “group boarding” system on all its flights. When the passenger checks in, whether online or at the airport, they will be assigned a group numbered between one and five. “This number will then be displayed prominently on the boarding pass, printed or mobile,” says BA in an internal newsletter. The lower the number, the earlier the passenger will be allowed to board. The highest priority will be assigned to Gold members of the British Airways Executive Club, as well as First Class passengers on long-haul flights and short-haul travellers on BA’s business class, Club Europe. Next are Silver members and Club World passengers on long-haul flights. Group three will comprise Bronze Executive Club members and passengers in World Traveller Plus, BA’s premium economy. Economy passengers with no special status will be in group 4, with group 5 on European flights comprising those travelling on the cheapest, hand-baggage only fares. Passengers with mobility issues or who are travelling with young children will still be able to board ahead of everyone else. Travellers who have frequent-flyer status with BA’s Oneworld alliance partners will also get priority. In its internal document, BA says: “This method has been used all around the world by many airlines and aligns BA with partners American Airlines and Iberia. “Group boarding simplifies the process, making it easier for customers to understand the boarding sequence at the gate.”<br/>

Qantas will use an industrial type mustard seed to power its new Dreamliner between Melbourne and Los Angeles. The airline is working to use Brassica Carinata (carinata), a non-food mustard seed, which Qantas says produces high quality oil ideal for aviation biofuel, bio-jet for aircraft and bio-diesel for airport vehicles. The Los Angeles to Melbourne flight using a blend of biofuel and traditional jet fuel will run early next year. Qantas has a partnership with Agrisoma Biosciences (Agrisoma), the Canadian-based agricultural-technology company which developed the carinata<br/>seed. The two companies will work with Australian farmers to grow the country's first commercial aviation biofuel seed crop by 2020. Qantas CE Alison Webster said the historic flight and the partnership mark the first step in developing an aviation biofuel supply in Australia. "We are constantly looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions across our operations but when it comes to using renewable jet fuel, until now, there has not been a locally grown option at the scale we need to power our fleet," Webster said. The longer-term strategic goal of the partnership was to grow 400,000ha of carinata which would yield more than 200m litres of bio-jet fuel each year. Webster said this would support the development of a renewable jetfuel supply and bio-refinery in Australia to power the airline's fleet and further reduce carbon emissions across the airline's operations.<br/>