PACKAGED TOURS OF N.Z. PLANNED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29469, 22 March 1961, Page 14

PACKAGED TOURS OF N.Z. PLANNED

If he can procure Tasman air rights Mr R. M. Ansett, the Australian transport magnate, will open up regular tourist flights and packaged tours around New Zealand by South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand aircraft

Mr Ansett, on his arrival in Christchurch yesterday, said that his airlines were prepared to operate scenic flights wherever rights to main trunk lines from Australia could be obtained.

Yesterday in Wellington he talked with Government officials and the Minister of

Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine). He proposes to take over Tasman Empire Airways, Ltd., for £2m if the New Zealand and Australian governments are prepared to sell. If he obtains Tasman rights he will fly jet aircraft to New Zealand. These aircraft would be either Convairs or Boeing 707’s, or if some time elapses before the rights are made available, the Boeing 727. which will be ready for commercial use in 1964. Mr Ansett, who owns a chain of hotels in Australia, said that any tourist trade he attracted to New Zealand would necessitate the building of additional hotels. “There are some on the outskirts of cities which cbuld be utilised; but we will build hotels if necessary.” South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand, which started operations in competition with the National Airways Corporation on some routes late last year, was operating "very satisfactorily,” said Mr Ansett. He has a 49 per cent, interest in the company, and one of the purposes of his visit was to talk with the New Zealand directors and examine the possibilities of new routes. Technical and administrative assistance had been given to the company by Ansett airlines’ men, and although initial “teething trouble” had been experienced the company was working very well. Mr Ansett arrived in Christchurch in his personal piston-engined Convair. He will Stay in New Zealand another two or three days before returning to Australia. In Christchurch he will talk

with various airline officials, and the chairman of the Christchurch City Council airport committee (Cr. A. R. Guthrey). Christchurch Airport Mr Guthrey, who met Mr Ansett last evening, said that Mr Ansett had been most impressed by the facilities at Christchurch airport, and had agreed that it was “a great pity” that it Was not being used to its full capacity as an international airport. “Mr Ansett said that if he took over T.E.A.L. he would re-equip it as soon as possible with pure jets, and would definitely use Christchurch as his main port of entry to, and departure from New Zealand,” said Mr Guthrey. “Christchurch would then be the focal point for package tours of New Zealand, tours in which the South Island would receive special attention.” Mr Ansett had said that he would organise both package and stop-off tours of New Zealand for Australians, who would then use New Zealand internal services, which, if not sufficient, would be augmented by Ansett-A.N.A.’s own capital resources, even to the extent of building additional hotels, if they were needed, said Mr Guthrey. “When I asked Mr Ansett —if he were successful in negotiating the purchase of T.E.A.L. —if he would be prepared to face open competition across the Tasman from Pan American Airways and Qantas, he replied that he would, and was not at all concerned about competition,” Mr Guthrey said. “He said that Ansett-A.N.A. would generate a tremendous volume of additional tourist traffic from Australia to New Zealand, and he believed, by the same token, that Pan American Airways would generate tourist traffic from America to New Zealand, so that their activities would be more complementary than competitive.”