All Garuda Indonesia international services will operate from the new Terminal 3 at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International  Airport from May 1.

Garuda will transfer 30 daily overseas flights to the new facility and will be the only carrier operating international flights from the 25-million passenger terminal for now. Other international carriers will continue to operate from Terminal 2.

Soekarno-Hatta is the main airport serving the greater Jakarta area, catering for 187 international flights a day and handling 54 million passengers a year. Its annual throughput makes it the world’s 18^th busiest airport and its location means it is called Cengkareng by locals, accounting for its CGK IATA code.

Indonesia’s national carrier said it had worked with airport operator Angkas Pura II   to successfully completed simulations to test the new terminal’s operational feasibility.

It said passenger simulations focused on passenger flows between the departures area and boarding gate as well as between the landing gate and the passenger arrivals area.

“The simulation of T3 International operations has been conducted several times involving hundreds of passengers, immigration and Customs officers, and also Gapura Angkasa as the ground handling provider and other stakeholders,” Angkasa executive  Agus Haryadi said in a statement.

“In line with numerous simulations, we are positive that as a result of all the prior preparation, the T3 operations will run as smoothly as possible, specifically for Garuda Indonesia.’’

Terminal 3 was officially launched in August, 2016 and has been catering for domestic flights. It has had a number of teething problems, according to local media, including a collapsed roof and flash flooding in the arrival gate area

International operations will be supported by 64 immigration counters — 32 each for arrival and departures — 30 immigration “autogates’, six baggage claim points, six aerobridges and parking for 1200 vehicles.

The terminal boasts a commercial area of almost 46,000 sq. m with walk-through shopping and is connected to its counterpart by a Skytrain.

Garuda corporate communications vice president Benny S. Butarbutar said the move to Terminal 3 meant passengers would enjoy upgraded facilities with a “five- star” service standard.

He said the airline had also conducted several operational trials involving all service units at the airport “to ensure all aspects of aviation safety and security as well as passenger services are running according to the relevant standards and procedures’.

Garuda will operate 28 check-in counters and will have lounge facilities capable of accommodating up to 2100 passengers with 1700 in the business lounge and 400 in first class.

Despite the preparations, the airline appealed to customers to arrive earlier than normal in anticipation of “any delays and adjustments of passenger flow”.

Countering a trend towards laying on longer routes over the past few years, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines is launching a slew of new shorter West Coast and intra-California service.

Beginning August,  Southwest will fly nonstop from Sacramento to Long Beach (388 miles or 463kms), as well as Sacramento to Spokane, Washington (658 miles).
Existing routes get a boost too: Sacramento – Seattle (635 miles) and Sacramento – San Diego (473 miles).

There will be 11 daily round trips between Sacramento and San Francisco and as many as a half-dozen from Sacramento to Seattle.

By contrast, Southwest’s spate of new international routes entail some long flights. Case-in-point is the carrier’s new San Diego – San Jose del Campo (SJD), Mexico service, an 802-mile jaunt down the Baja to the popular resort.

So, why does route length matter?

Airlines love to fly longer routes because of their economics.

Over a given distance it costs less to operate a flight nonstop than it does on a multi-stop or connecting basis. All that ascent to and descent from cruise altitude can mean more fuel expended, and more maintenance required.

To give that some context, The US Department of Transportation says Southwest is the United States’ largest airline in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded. Its
route map encompasses 101 domestic destinations and eight additional countries.

Back in 1971 when it first started flying, Southwest-operated flights linking three Texas airports: Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby, and San Antonio International.

The initial fleet was tiny. Its “fleet” of three of Boeing 737-200s was kept in almost perpetual motion among the ‘Texas Triangle’ cities. Ground crews could “turn” an airplane (re-fuel, deplane passengers and their bags and load up with new flyers and their luggage) in 10 minutes.

That 10-minute turn time is gone now, and Southwest’s all-737 fleet is composed of more than 550 jets. They depart as many as 3,900 times per day.

No longer a quirky little airline and a mere thorn in the side of the competition, Southwest is a bonafide force to be reckoned with by American, Delta and United.

People with vision problems will be able to more easily use the inflight entertainment system on Virgin Australia’s Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft thanks to new software heralded as a first for the Asia-Pacific.

The Australian carrier is only the second in the world to introduce a special user interface to help vision-impaired passengers access inflight entertainment.

The interface, designed by CoKinetic Systems,  features big icons that are easier to recognise and use and is already available on Virgin Boeing 777-300ER aircraft used on long-haul routes to Los Angeles. It will also be rolled out on its Airbus A330 aircraft used primarily on domestic trans-continental routes to the West Australian capital of Perth.

The airline consulted with an Australian disability advocate, Philip Chalker, to design the interface and a Virgin spokeswoman said cabin crew would help vision impaired people set it up.

“The way it’s been designed is the iconography is really large,’’ the spokeswoman said. “So it’s a lot clearer and the basic colours that have been used allow vision-impaired … people to see it a lot easier.”

The home screen on the interface gives people access to TV, movies, the flight map as well as music and audiobooks.

The feature is the latest move by Virgin to improve accessibility to its entertainment system.

This includes closed captions and subtitles for passengers with hearing disabilities  available not just on the airline’s IFE system but on the wireless system that allows people travelling on its single-aisle jets to access entertainment on their own devices.

Vision-impaired passengers can also use their own screen reader software with the wireless IFE system.

Vision Australia general manager for advocacy and engagement Karen Knight commended the airline for its move to improve IFE accessibility.

“Many people who are blind or have low vision enjoy travel and travel widely, and by Virgin Australia continuing to improve the accessibility of its IFE technology guests have the opportunity to enjoy the latest entertainment,” she said.

The number of wi-fi enable aircraft flying around Australia doubled Thursday with the announcement Virgin Australia has begun a three-month test.

The airline has joined Qantas by equipping one of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft with wi-fi capable of delivering streaming services such as Netflix, Stan and Pandora to passenger’s devices.

Both carriers are offering the service free, although Virgin says it has yet to finalise its business model and there is speculation it may ultimately charge for the privilege.

Both are keen to test the reliability of their systems before rolling them out across their fleets.

Virgin’s system will be integrated with its wireless entertainment system and will offer the full catalogue of movies and TV shows from Netflix and Stan as well as music from Pandora Plus.

The airline will offer passengers who travel on its test plane three months’ free access to Netflix and Pandora Plus, including those with existing accounts. New subscribers to Stan will also get complimentary access for three months.

“We’re looking forward to receiving guest feedback about our inflight connectivity over the next three months to ensure we are able to offer the best possible service in the sky,” Virgin group executive john Thomas said.

Virgin has opted for the in-flight connectivity specialist Gogo’s 2Ku technology connected through five Optus geostationary satellites, while Qantas has opted for the high-capacity Ka system offered by ViaSat through nbn’s Sky Muster satellite.

This battle is already underway in the US  where Gogo, used by Virgin partner Delta Air Lines, is the market leader and ViaSat the up and coming challenger.

Ku and Ka refer to wavelength classifications for the signals the technologies are using to communicate with the satellites. Ku uses longer wavelengths and a lower frequency and is an older technology.

Ku satellites historically have not had the bandwidth capacity of their Ka counterparts and the earlier Ku wi-fi system was relatively slow.

However,  Gogo boosted speeds by introducing a dual antenna — one for upload and one for download — with 2Ku and earlier this year claimed peak speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

Virgin also announced Thursday it would launch twice-weekly services between Perth and Canberra during Parliamentary sitting weeks in August and September. The services on Thursdays and Sundays will be operated by Boeing 737s.

US carriers appear to have scored a win from the controversial moves by the Trump administration to target airlines operating from North Africa and the Middle East.

Dubai-based Emirates confirmed this week it would be reducing flights to five of the 12 US cities it currently serves due to weakened travel demand.

Emirates blamed the fall on US government moves against some Middle East destinations but a lobby group for the big three US carriers — Delta, American and United — poured scorn on the claim.

The US carriers have been opposing decisions to allow Gulf carriers access to the American market in a bitter fight which has seen claims and counter claims about government support for Emirates, Qatar and Etihad.

Emirates said recent Trump Administration moves to restrict entry visas, heighten security vetting and ban large electronic devices in the cabins of some airlines had a direct impact on consumer interest and demand for air travel into the US.

“Until the start of 2017, Emirates’ operations in the US has seen healthy growth and performance, driven by customer demand for our high-quality product and our international flight connections,’’ the airline said in statement supplied to AirlineRatings.

“However, over the past 3 months, we have seen a significant deterioration in the booking profiles on all our US routes, across all travel segments.

“Emirates has therefore responded as any profit-oriented enterprise would, and we will redeploy capacity to serve demand on other routes on our global network.”

The airline is cutting services to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando from daily services to five a week from May 1 and May 23, respectively.

Its Seattle and Boston flights will move from twice daily to daily services in early June and there will be a similar cut to its Los Angeles flights from July 1.

But the lobby group for the big three US airlines, the Parthsership for Open and Fair Skies, described the Emirates claim it was profit-oriented as “laughable”.

“The fact is, market demand has never played a role when the Gulf carriers decide where to fly,’’ spokeswoman Jill Zuckman said.

“ It is well known that the Gulf carriers, including Emirates, lose money on most of their flights to the United States and are propped up by billions of dollars in government cash. ‘’

“Their business model is based on growing their networks without regard to profitability in order to serve their governments’ goals to dominate global aviation.”

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad said it had not seen a significant drop in demand on its US flights.

“Demand continues to remain strong on all 45 weekly services between Abu Dhabi and its six US gateways of New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas,’’ Etihad said.

“Effective 1 June, Etihad Airways’ second daily Abu Dhabi – New York service will be upgraded to an A380, making its twice-daily flights on the route an all superjumbo ‎operation.

“This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the US market regardless of recent developments.’’

The chances of being tossed around an aircraft cabin by severe turbulence could triple in coming years due to climate change, a new study has found.

The study by University of Reading researcher Dr Paul Williams is the first to examine the impact of climate change on turbulence and the results should make even the most brazen of passengers buckle up.

Although technology that allows aircraft to detect unexpected turbulence has improved, clear air turbulence remains difficult to distinguish and there are still incidents where passengers and cabin crew are injured.

It is already estimated to cost US carriers $US200 million annually and Increased turbulence has implications for aircraft insurers and for the efficiency of airline operations.

The study, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, used super computer simulations to look at how a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would affect wintertime turbulence levels on trans-Atlantic routes at about 39,000ft. it said that level of CO2 was widely expected to occur later this century.

The results showed the average amount of light turbulence in the atmosphere will increase by 59 per cent with light-to-moderate turbulence rising by 75 per cent, moderate by 94 per cent, moderate-to-severe by 127 per cent and severe by 149 per cent.

The reason for this, according to the study, is that climate change is generating stronger wind shears within the jet stream and that these are a major cause of turbulence.

“Our new study paints the most detailed picture yet of how aircraft turbulence will respond to climate change,’’ Williams said.

“For most passengers, light turbulence is nothing more than an annoying inconvenience that reduces their comfort levels, but for nervous fliers even light turbulence can be distressing.

“However, even the most seasoned frequent fliers may be alarmed at the prospect of a 149 per cent increase in severe turbulence, which frequently hospitalises air travellers and flight attendants around the world.”

Williams said his priority now was to investigate other flight routes around the world.

“We also need to investigate the altitude and seasonal dependence of the changes, and to analyse different climate models and warming scenarios to quantify the uncertainties,” he said.

Conservative estimates show the busy North Atlantic flight corridor experiences about 790 turbulence encounters a year resulting in 687 minor and 38 serious injuries to flight attendants as well as 120 minor and 17 serious injuries to passengers.

However, the Reading researchers believe actual injury rates are higher with other estimates indicating that there are over 63,000 encounters with moderate-or-greater turbulence and 5,000 encounters with severe-or-greater turbulence annually.