Air Route Through Bay Of Plenty Applied For

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30093, 29 March 1963, Page 12

Air Route Through Bay Of Plenty Applied For

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 28. A DC3 service between Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua and Wellington would not only provide a more convenient and direct access from the area to Wellington and the South Island, but it would be possible considerably to reduce fares from the Bay of Plenty to Wellington and the South Island. This was stated in evidence before the Air Services Licensing Authority today by Mr L. L. Ford, deputy general manager of the National Airways Corporation. The Authority was hearing an application from NA.C. to operate a seven-day a week service over the route and return.

Mr S. G. Lockhart appeared in support of the application. Members of the authority are Mr G. H. Lusk (chairman), Group Captain T. W. White and Mr H. B Smith. Decision was reserved. In evidence Mr Ford said the proposed timetable w’as designed to include Rotorua in the network of services on a daily basis, seven days a week, and to provide a sameday service to all points on the network with the exception of the West Coast of the South Island and NortMand. In addition, the proposed timetable would provide a more convenient and more direct access from the Bay of Plenty area, including Rotorua, Tauranga and Whakatane. to Wellington and the South Island. As a result of a direct service it would be possible to make a considerable reduction in fares from the Bay of Plenty to Wellington and the South Island. The initial timetable provided 182 seats a week in each direction. It was considered that this capacity would make ample provision for traffic offering at the ordinary time of the year. For peak holiday periods end other special occasions the corporation had the capacity available to supplement the daily service either over the whole route or between Rotorua and Wellington. Mr Ford said the proposal was to inaugurate the service with a DC3 aircraft as soon as the new airfield at Rotokawa was available for operation. ''The corporation has always made it clear that it would be prepared to operate DC3 services to Rotorua when the airfield became suitable for their use.” Over the last 15 years the corporation had endeavoured

to maintain air services to Rotorua and the loss on the present Apache service was approximately £7OOO a year. The inclusion of Rotorua, said Mr Ford, in the proposed pattern of operation would not only give an improved service to Rotorua, but also provide an improved southbound service to Tauranga and Whakatane. which were already included in the corporation’s licensed network. SJ*.A.N.Z. Application At the same hearing an application by South Pacific Airways of New Zealand, Ltd, for a licence to operate between Rotorua-Wellington and return, initially twice a week, was opposed by N.A.C. Mr E. F. Page appeared for the applicant company. Group Captain R. D. Daniell, general manager of S.P.A.N.Z, said the company was convinced there was room for both airlines to operate profitably on the Rotorua - Wellington route and return. If the licence was granted it would eliminate bottlenecks on some services and would not cause any economic hardship to N.A.C. The company proposed initially to offer transport from Taupo to Rotorua which would produce passengers normally not available to N.A.C. Rotorua was a major tourist attraction and

SP.A.N.Z. had always tried to provide services to meet their needs. He considered the company served tourists better than N.A.C. ‘‘There is more than ample room for both services. We only want a minimum initially of two flights a week and this would not tn any way affect the economics of N.A.C.” Group Captain Daniell said the company's annual use was 5000 hours, but they had the planes and staff for an annual use of 6600 hours. Two flights a week would mean an extra 10 hours use or just more than 500 hours extra per annum.

Rotorua was becoming increasingly more popular as a conference and tourist resort and the company was keen to promote package tours as well as charter flights. The city probably offered more traffic potential with visitors than many centres. Group Captain Daniell said S.P.AN.Z. had negotiated with overseas tour promoters and felt that a smaller company could give a more personal service which tourists would appreciate. The company’s booking agent in Wellington had reported about two inquiries a day for direct flights to Rotorua and Taupo. The authority will resume the hearing tomorrow morning.