TASMAN EMPIRE AIRWAYS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27074, 24 June 1953, Page 11

TASMAN EMPIRE AIRWAYS

SPECULATION ABOUT FUTURE

DECISION MAY SOON BE ANNOUNCED (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 22. A decision is expected soon on the future of Tasman Empire Airways, Ltd., says the aviation correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald.” The various possibilities have been much canvassed. They include: that the airline, will cease operations, that it will be absorbed by British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, that it will absorb 8.C.P.A.; that it will continue to operate as at present, that one or other of the other shareholders, Britain and Australia, will sell their holdings to the New Zealand Government. The whole future of Auckland’s international airport is believed to be bound up with the question whether Tasman Empire Airways will continue to operate. If the airline is to continue operations it will order the big, long-range Bristol Britannia, a landplane, to replace its flying-boats, which are becoming more expensive to operate, adds the correspondent. Mr G. N. Roberts, its general manager, says that the company will buy three Britannias, and that each will cost nearly £1,000,000 with spares. No “interim” aircraft will be bought, although this was considered si few months ago. If the order for Britannias were placed today they would probably not be delivered until 1956 or 1957. Other airlines have already placed substantial orders, and T.E.A.L. would have to wait its turn. ’ Between now and 1956 much work could be done on a new airport for Auckland. Those in the aviation business say that the Government will be forced to press on with an international airport if T.E.A.L. continues to operate. “Staffs Uneasy” An early decision is important to allay the anxieties the staff of 700 employed by T.E.A.L. and the 300 employed, mostly in Australia, by B.C.P.A. the correspondent continues. There have been so many rumours that the staffs are becoming uneasy. Many of them are highly-trained specialists whose services are valuable. T.E.A.L. is expected to show a loss on last year’s operations, and the company has no reserves for the purchase of new aircraft. Public money would be required to equip the airline with the Britannias. T.E.A.L. and the Governments concerned, the correspondent adds, have been much criticised for retaining the monopoly over the Tasman when other airlines with more comfortable and faster aircraft want a share of the traffic between New Zealand and Australia.

Mr Roberts admits that T.E.A.L. cannot keep the Tasman monopoly for ever, but he asks above all that his company be given the chance to compete with modern aircraft with the other airlines before the Tasman is opened up. If this monopoly is given up, he and other British airline executives hope that the Americans will be persuaded in return to open up the Honolulu-San Francisco run to them.