Increase In Air Travel, Drop In Sea Figures

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 18

Increase In Air Travel, Drop In Sea Figures

There is a ■ steady, significant trend toward air travel to and from New Zealand, according to the latest report from the Department of Statistics. There was a 15 per cent, increase in the number of people leaving New Zealand, but only a five per cent? increase in arrivals. There’ are still more arrivals by sea but this is due to the number of assisted immigrants. But the percentage of those arriving by sea against those coming in by air is only 51 to 49. Departures by air exceed sea departures s by 5 per cent. The preponderance of shipping arrivals is also helped by the number of cruise ships from North America and liners from Europe which come through .the Panama Canal. Another significant factor in the last year is the number of people arriving in New Zealand on working holidays. They usually come by sea. Monowai’s Withdrawal With the withdrawal of the Monowai from the Tasman service at the end of next May, the proportion of air to sea travellers is expected to increase considerably. The great majority of sea and air travellers are Tasman passengers. The increase in air travel will be further strengthened by the three new Tasman Empire Airways Electras which, by the middle of next year should be flying

t from Wellington as well as Auck--1 land and Christchurch. > An Electra has already shown that it can make a return trip from New Zealand to Australia ■ comfortably in a day. This indi- • cates a greater frequency of ■ flights, which should attract more ■ customers when the regular shipping service across the Tasman ; is reduced to a fortnightly round ■ trip. Most temporary visitors, such as tourists, business people, officials and entertainers and sports representatives, fly to New Zealand. In all classes of departures, air ; plays the greater part. Travel Trend The trend toward air travel is shown in the following table:— % arrivals % departures Year ended bv bv

Of the 83,648 arrivals last financial year, 50,075 came across the Tasman 1 . Similarly, 48,368 of the ; 73,656 departing travellers went across the Tasman. The vast majority were purely trans-Tasman passengers, with destinations in Australia and New Zealand. Of the trans-Tasman arrivals. 27,955 flew and 22,120 came by sea. Going back to Australia and beyond, 27,536 went by air and 20,832 by sea.

ititi euut March 31 .a sea air sea y air 1955 .. 60 40 56 44 1956 .. 58 42 53 47 1957 .. 52 48 48 52 1958 .. 53 47 47 53 1959 .. 51 49 45 55