Carry on: Air NZ at LAX, wi-fi on Emirates, route news of the week

Air NZ’s first flight to new LAX terminal
Air New Zealand’s first flight to the new Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will arrive December 3. The airline says passengers should find faster processing, an enhanced transit experience, a state-of-the-art lounge and more than 150,000sq ft of retail and dining space in the Great Hall.

General manager customer experience Carrie Hurihanganui says, “this move goes a long way to improving the ground experience at what is one of our busiest offshore ports” – a promise thousands will hope can be delivered at what many New Zealanders consider is the world’s worst.

Ms Hurihanganui says transiting customers will no longer need to remain in a dedicated transit facility and will instead be able to access the wider terminal while waiting for connecting flights.

Eligible customers will also have access to the Star Alliance Los Angeles Lounge which Air New Zealand manages. The 18,000sq ft lounge features an open-air terrace with panoramic views of the northern runway toward the Hollywood Hills and dedicated zones catering for business or rest. to differing customer needs such as rest.

Emirates to offer free wi-fi on all flights
Once limited to an expensive extra only a handful of airlines, in-flight wi-fi will soon be all Emirates planes and be a free service. President Tim Clark says demand for wi-fi will only increase as more people embrace an “always-on” digital lifestyle and carry smart mobile devices when they travel.

“We’ve always viewed wi-fi as a service and a value-added part of Emirates’ overall product, rather than a revenue stream,” he says.

Emirates provides the first 10 MBs of data for free on most flights equipped with wi-fi and a token $US1 charge is imposed for the next 600 MB, which it says is sufficient for most travellers to check in on their social media accounts. Onboard wi-fi is available on 53 A380s and on 28 Boeing 777s that can operate the New Zealand services to Dubai and beyond. New software programming will eventually enable passengers to have unlimited free access to wi-fi.

Route news of the week
Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines’ regional subsidiary SilkAir will link Cairns and Darwin with Singapore in direct flights from May 20. The service using Boeing 737-800 aircraft will run three days a week with stopovers in Darwin on most flights.

Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380 service between Frankfurt and Delhi has finally cleared the red tape and is due to land on November 8, NZ time. It was scheduled to start a week ago. The superjumbo will replace a Boeing 747-8. Emirates will launch a third daily A380 to New York JFK airport on March 8. A daily flight using a Boeing 777 also operates the Dubai-New York route via Milan, Italy.

Sister airlines Air France and KLM are stepping up their connections to western Canada from Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol respectively. Air France will fly up to five-times weekly to Vancouver, while KLM will operate up to four weekly flights to Edmonton. The new Air France flights to Vancouver are in addition to KLM's seven-weekly service to Vancouver. KLM will start its three-weekly service to Edmonton on May 5.