CANNOT USE THEM

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 160, 9 July 1935, Page 9

CANNOT USE THEM

FIVE BOEING 'PLANES.

COMPANY'S SERIOUS LOSS

LICENSING RESTRICTION.

(By Telegraph.—rress Association.)

DUNEDIN, this day.

When the steamer Wairuna arrives at Dunedin on Thursday New Zealand Airways, Ltd., according to a statement made by the managing director, Mr. H. M. Mackay, will be in possession of two Boeing aeroplanes, which, under the terms of license granted to it by the Transport Co-ordination Board, the company will not be permitted to use. This will not be the full extent of the company's loss, for it has also purchased three other Booing 'planes, which are now in Vancouver. Shipment of these has been stopped, but all live remain on the company's hands as almost a dead loss. Mr. Mackay explained that New Zealand Airways was among the companies which 'applied to the Transport Coordination Board for route licenses, but its aspirations in this rspect were not fulfilled, and when licenses were granted to other companies the application by New Zealand Air vays for a general air taxi license to operate over the whole of New Zealand remained before the. board. In this the use of the Boeing machines was specified. Recently the company was advised that the board had granted it a taxi license, which provided that the only machines to be used were the five Hermes Spartans and a Puss Moth, all three-seater machines which the _ company had previously been using in its operations. The license, which would remain in force for five years from October 31, 1034, also limited the service to the carrying of passengers and goods on journeys to any part of the South Island, commencing from or terminating at the aerodromes at Timaru or Dunedin. Machines Already Ordered. The Transport Co-ordination Board, in coming to its decision, had been aware that the machines had been ordered. The company was presented with a problem in respect to the disposal of the 'planes, for it was not likely that they could be used commercially in New Zealand, and to sell them in America would be difficult, as they would not bo large enough or fast enough to compete with machines used on air routes there.