TRUNK AIR ROUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 186, 8 August 1935, Page 9

TRUNK AIR ROUTE.

PALMERSTON NORTH.

BOARD TO RECONSIDER.

PACIFIC AIRWAYS' APPEAL.

Advice has been received in Auckland that the Transport Co-ordination Board has agreed to reopen the question as to whether Palm-irston North should be included in the Auckland-Dunedin trunk air route of Great Pacific Airways. According to Mr. Trevor S. Withers, organiser of the company, the board will deal with the application to have Palmerston North included in the route at a meeting to be lield in Wellington on August 19.

Commenting on tlic decision of the board to reopen the question, Mr. Withers eaid: "The relief felt by my directors will be shared by everyone interested in the establishment of a national trunk air service in New Zealand. The exclusion of Palmereton North from the trunk air route would negative to a very large extent the value of the services proposed. The elimination of Palmerston North as a port of call would also render difficult the establishment of the essentially national project which my directors are bringing into being. That thiis fact is recognised by the general public has been obvious from the many protests recently expressed at the action of the board. These protests indicate clearly that the proposed trunk air service is already regarded as a national undertaking, and I feel confident that the board will now appreciate this fact." Union Airways Service. Mr. Withers stated that the board's action in excluding Palmerston North from the trunk air route of Great Pacific Airways had followed a request for protection by Union Airways, Limited, a company sponsored by the Union Steam Ship Company, Limited, which proposed to operate air services between Palmerston North, Blenheim, Christchurch and Dunedin.

"My directors hope, , ' said Mr. Withers, "that their request to the board to consent to the inclusion of Palmerston North as a port of call for the Great Pacific Airways service will no longer bo opposed by Union Airways, Liimted. I think it can be safely said that the general public ehares this hope. Although Union Airways, Limited, applied to th» board for protection at Palmerston North, there can be in actual fact no real competition between the services of this company and those of Great Pacific Airways. That this is so is immediately obvious from the respective timetables. The Time-tables. "The Union Airways service has been described by the board as being primarily a mail service between the North and South Islands. It will leave Palmerston North at 8 am., upon the arrival of the Limited express from Auckland, and fly direct to Blenheim (omitting Wellington), and thence to Christchurch and Dunedin. The early hour departure from Palmerstou North* while essential from a mail point of view, will make it impossible for Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay passengers and mails to connect with this service at Palmerston North. The Great Pacific Airways service from Auckland to Dunedin, on the other hand, will leave Palmerston North at approximately at 10.45 a.m., and will co-ordinate there with a morning service from Gisborne, Napier and Dannevirke."

"The north-bound Union Airways service would arrive at Palmerston North from Blenheim, Christchurch and Dunedin at 5 p.m.," said Mr. Withers, "too late in the afternoon to enable passengers and mails to be transported to Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay the same afternoon, while this service would not stop at Wellington. The northbound Great Pacific Airways service, however, would reach Palmereton North between noon and 1 p.m., and passengers and mails from Wellington and the South Island would thus be able to reach Gisborne, via Dannevirke and Napier, by 4 p.m. the same day. Rivalry Not Justified. "Our objective—the establishment of the national system of air services—is surely of sufficient importance to New Zealand to justify our looking to all interests for friendly co-operation rather than obstruction. Some degree of rivalry between Great Pacific Airways and Union Airways was perhaps inevitable several months ago, when the two organisations were rivals for the only license which it was commonly anticipated would be granted. In view of the fact that each company secured a license for its particular service, however, a continuation of that rivalry would now be unjustified. Obstructive tactics upon the part of either company must now inevitably react to the detriment of commercial aviation and to New Zealand as a whole. My directors feel that it is the common duty of Great Pacific Airways and Union Airways to co-operate wherever possible. They raised no objection to the recent inclusion of Blenheim as a port- of call in the Union Airways license, and they accordingly feel justified in expressing the hope that Union Airways will no longer oppose the inclusion of Palmerston North in the trunk air route of Great Pacific Airways." '