Sydney Airport on Apple Maps
Travellers can now navigate their way around Sydney Airport more easily. The facility’s terminals and car parks have been added to Apple Maps, which is hoped to help travellers find toilets, lifts, shops and their departure gates!
New BA amenity kits
British Airways’ Club World business class cabin on its Sydney-London Heathrow route now features new bedding and amenity kits. Bespoke bedding from The White Company includes a large, soft pillow and white cotton pillowcase as well as a woven blanket with satin trim, a luxury duvet and a padded mattress cover. Meanwhile, amenity kits contain products from the retailer’s ‘Restore & Relax Spa Collection’ in an elegantly designed bag.
Virgin adds in-flight Wi-Fi to LAX route
Travellers flying with Virgin Australia between Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and Los Angeles can now enjoy in-flight Wi-Fi. The service costs $9 for one hour or $20 for the entire flight. Connection speeds allow for web browsing, email, messaging and social media, but are insufficient for video streaming and services such as Skype and FaceTime are blocked. Another point to note is that service outages may occur at times during the flight, due to lack of satellite availability. Four of the carrier’s five B777-300ERs used on the LAX routes are already fitted with the Wi-Fi technology, with the service rolling out to the last aircraft this month.
Emirates Edinburgh-bound
Emirates plans to launch daily non-stop services between Dubai and Edinburgh. The services will complement the carrier’s existing double daily services to Glasgow. The new route will launch on 1 October operating on three-class B777-300ER aircraft.
BreakFree on George revamped
A $3-million revamp of Mantra Group’s BreakFree on George property in Sydney is now complete. Furniture and furnishings have been updated in all 160 apartments as well as public areas.
BA TSA Pre-check
Travellers flying with British Airways will now enjoy shorter security queues at US airports. The carrier has signed up to the TSA Pre-check program, so approved passengers are no longer required to remove items of clothing at security checkpoints and laptops can remain in hand luggage.
Qantas introduces in-flight meditation
Qantas is introducing meditation to its in-flight entertainment. The meditation video series has been specially designed to bring a sense of calm, offering passengers a new way to relax. The 10-minute guided meditation is set to aerial footage of some of the most beautiful landscapes around Australia. Customers can choose from scenes including deserts, bushland, coasts and forests. An immersive virtual reality (VR) version can be downloaded before travelling via the Qantas VR App. The video series will be available from June 2018.
New BA lounge
British Airways has opened its newest lounge, which is located in a newly completed extension of Aberdeen. Next in line to receive a new BA lounge will be New York JFK’s Terminal 7, followed by Geneva, San Francisco, Johannesburg and Chicago.