Use Of Electras Attacked

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30884, 18 October 1965, Page 1

Use Of Electras Attacked

(N.Z. Press Association)

MASTERTON, Oct. 17.

The deputy-chairman of S.P.A.N.Z., Mr J. C. Andrew, said tonight he was concerned at the announcement by N.A.C. that it would introduce chartered Electra services using Air New Zealand crews on the internal main trunk route from December 23.

“South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand has been denied main trunk rights ■on the ground that there is only room for one airline to operate such routes,” he said in a statement.

An editorial in the official monthly journal of the Airline Pilots’ Association of New Zealand, stated that if there was surplus traffic on the main trunk routes, then it should first be offered to New Zealand’s internal operators before being given to international operators, Mr Andrew said. “The article went on to state that in this case the service could well be operated by S.P.A.N.Z.”

Mr Andrew said the Air Licensing Authority’s decision not to grant S.P.A.N.Z. sole rights into Rotorua and Taupo, and rationalise the air services where S.P.A.N.Z. and N.A.C. were flying parallel, had brought to naught after eight months of planning and negotiation one of the most detailed investigations into airline operation carried out in New Zealand. In its decision announced on Thursday the authority made it clear that it had no power to adjudicate on the matter, and that it had no power to review the corporation’s licence to Rotorua unless the corporation had been guilty of operating against the public interest, he said.

“Thus, regardless of any facts placed before it, the authority had no option but to reject the application of S.P.A.N.Z.

‘The application was for a two-stage development of my company. It was agreed by all parties concerned that stage one, a solely DC3 operation

based on the zoning of Rotorua using conservative estimates and paying all airport and airways dues, was an economic operation. “The M.P. for Wairarapa, Mr H. V. Donald, would do well to accept this fact and not cast recrimination on the management and staff of a company that has served this district so well for the last five years,” Mr Andrew said.

“Mr Donald has stated that the Air Licensing Authority is independent of Government direction and adjudicates impartially between disputing parties. “With this I would agree, but I would ask what use is such an authority when it clearly states, as it has in this case, that it has no power to act.” Mr Andrew said that S.P.A.N.Z. derived 14 per cent of its capital and 25 per cent of its shareholders from Wairarapa in order to supply a much needed air service. The airline had pioneered the bulk of its routes only to be

overflown when profitability had been reached. “Surely as in any other licensed business, is not S.P.A.N.Z. entitled to reap the reward of its labours?” Mr Andrew said the smaller provincial areas were entitled to feel that operators who gave them service were entitled to sufficient traffic to produce an economic operation and guarantee continuity of service. “Wairarapa, along with Gore, Alexandra, Oamaru, and Taupo are vitally affected as to whether S.P.A.N.Z. remains in existence,” he said. “Mr Donald has a vital role to play to bring together the members of Parliament who represent these areas to help find a solution. To throw brickbats at the staff and those who are seeking a solution is not to help.

“We may have put up capital to get an airline and now find that we have little capital, but we do at least have an airline which we intend to keep,” Mr Andrew said.