NEW PACIFIC SERVICE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27678, 7 June 1955, Page 14

NEW PACIFIC SERVICE

ORIENT LINE’S PLANS

SIX VOYAGES A YEAR “I am glad to say that the results of our new Pacific service are so far satisfactory. The fact that it is filling a real need of the travelling public is shown by the fact that our annual carryings on the Pacific have been greater than the traffic carried by the Union Company’s Aorangi in the last full year she was in service,” says an extract from the speech of the chairman (Mr A. I. Anderson) at the annual general meeting of the Orient Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., in London, last month. Mr Anderson went on to say that the results of the company’s first two Pacific voyages and the forward bookings for subsequent voyages had encouraged the company to plan to have six voyages a year, at roughly two monthly intervals, in each direction on the Pacific. It would clearly be over optimistic to expect to maintain the exceptionally good load factors of the first two voyages, but it was hoped these sailings would produce results comparable with those of ships employed for the same period on the Suez route. Looking to the Future “Looking to the future, it seems to me inevitable that the already close ties between Australia, New Zealand and the North American Continent will grow stronger and that this must result in increased traffic, both by air and sea, across the Pacific,” said the chairman. “We are already working up a modest dollar earning traffic from North America to Australia and New Zealand and as the Americans, like the Australians and New Zealanders, are great travellers, I hope that this traffic will grow. “Not only do these American visitors bring both business and tourist revenue to New Zealand and Australia, but some of them are making round-the-world voyages and so add 'to the earnings of our own ships and those of other lines on, the normal Australia-Europe and Europe-North America services. This is another case of new facilities creating new traffic.

One satisfactory fact from the national point of view is that our dollar revenue already exceeds our dollar expenditure by more than we had dared to hope when we decided to try our fortunes on the Pacific.”