Holiday Travel Bookings Already Heavy

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 10

Holiday Travel Bookings Already Heavy

Christchurch citizens are already placing heavy bookings for their Christmas taroport.

The manager of a leading rental car firm in the city said yesterday he thought it would be difficult even at this time to hire a car for the Christmas-New Year period. His firm was already heavily booked, particularly from December 27 to about January 8. The heaviest bookings seemed to be for just after Christmas and eased after the first week of January. Airways bookings are being made at about the same volume as in previous years, and it is not expected they will become really heavy until the beginning of December.

The National Airways Corporation’s summer timetable will be in operation from December 20 to February 2. Each day there will be seven northbound Viscount flights, three north-bound Friendship flights and one DC3 flight through Blenheim. There will be four daily Friendship flights to Dunedin and Invercargill, and one DCB flight to Timaru. This year the corporation’s aircraft will be making full use of Momona airport, and in addition to the Christchurch to Dunedin services there will be Friendship and Viscount services flying dmert from Wellington to Dunedin and return. The use of Momona will mean less strain on facilities at Christchurch and less passengers transhipping here. The Christchurch schedule allows for 752 seats a day out of the city. This will be augmented on peak days by special flights. Indications are that the busiest day will be Saturday, December 22, when there will be 1138 seats available. Full schedules will be operated on Sunday, December 23, and the corresponding day at the end of the holiday period. Sunday, January 13. At present there are seats available on flights to all the main centres on all days. During the holiday period extra

flights will be scheduled as necessary to meet the demand as far as aircraft and staff availability permit. As in previous years, more passengers seem to be coming from the North Island to the South Island for Christmas than are leaving the south for the north.

The railways report all services are heavily booked for the holiday period but there are st.ill seaits available on all services both in and out of the city. Bookings for the Picton-Wellington rail ferry Aramoana are also heavy from Saturday, December 22 onwards, but there are still a few plaices available. From December 14 onwards the ferry is mainly fully booked for the carriage of vehicles. An extra trip, leaving at 11 p.m. is scheduled for the Aramoana from December 17 to 26. There is still some space on these trips for vehicles. This extra service will also run from January 7 to January 21. The Union Steam Ship Company reports heavy bookings on the steamer express for the period, particularly between December 20 and 27 and January 5 and 12. However, some berths are becoming available through cancellations. Between December 28 and January 2 plenty of berths are available. Special daylight trips will be run on December 21 and January 13. and plenty of accommodation on these trips is still available.