At the Dubai Airshow this week, Airbus finally introduced winglet technology on its A320s to save fuel and emissions. Its "Sharklet", a 2.4 meter-tall wing-tip, promises a 3.5 per cent fuel efficiency and translates into a savings of more than 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per plane, per year. The cost: about US$900,000 (Dh3.3m) per wingtip pair. It is about time. Boeing introduced its blended winglets in 2001, around the time Airbus originally pursued the idea but then decided not to go ahead with the technology. Now they are back, and this is good news for the airline industry, which has promised the world's politicians and environmentalists it will improve fuel efficiency by 1.5 per cent per year up to 2020. Without efficiency improvements, airlines including in the Middle East face the prospect of paying more in emissions taxes, as regimes such as the EU's Emissions Trading System start to come into play.