NEW FACILITIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 234, 3 October 1945, Page 7

NEW FACILITIES

AIRWAYS PASSENGERS

PROPOSALS IN AUCKLAND

Facilities at Auckland for airways passengers, both on internal lines and the Tasman service, will be greatly improved early next year with the completion of the Union Steam Ship Company's plans for altering its offices in Quay Street. At present the ground floor of the Maritime Building is shared by the Union Company and the New Zealand Shipping Company, but a new building is being built for the latter company next to its present offices, and it is expected that a change-over will be made about February next. The Union Company then proposes to take over for its own use the space vacated by the New Zealand Snipping Company in Maritime Building and carry out major reconstruction plans.

When these are completed the present Quay Street entrance will open on to the claims, freight, accounte and other departments, which will be housed in the New Zealand Shipping Company's present quarters, and to the counters where sea passages may be booked and other sniping inquiries mads. At right-angles to these counters will be the airways reservation section, but easier access to this department will be through a new entrance from Commerce Street.

Here there will be a suspended verandah at which buses can draw up to discharge or load airways passengers. Through the entrance a foyer will open off on to a lounge, for the use of airways passengers and people meeting them. There will also be baggage and freight receiving rooms, and the airways booking counters. At Mangere aerodrome, which is the .Auckland terminus of the internal air services, the lounge has recently been redecorated, refurnished and fitted with electric heating for the better comfort of those waiting for transportation. Increased Air Services In addition to improvements planned and completed, in facilities for air passengers, there has also been an increase in the internal air service itself. Some time ago the service suffered a serious handicap when its- Lockheed Lodestar, wit,h a passenger capacity of 15, was crashed by a young man attempting to take it on an unauthorised flight to Australia. This plane was replaced on the main Auckland service south by a Lockheed Electra, which carries only 10 passengers, but about four weeks ago a Lockheed Lodestar was brought back on to the run, and, relieved from time to time by an Electra machine, it maintains the service daily, except on Sundays. Moreover, the Auckland-Gisborne and Palmerston North - Napier - Gisborne flights, which had been operating only a short time when war demands on aircraft resulted in the cessation of the service, have now been reinstated. The service is maintained by a De Havilland aircraft, carrying 12 passengers.