Flying More And Faster

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31121, 26 July 1966, Page 3

Flying More And Faster

f.V Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 25

“It is no use people saying that ‘this isn’t going to happen’ and that the pace of aviation development—in growth and speed and immensely greater aircraft is an illusion. It is happening and in five years’ time it will have happened in a big way,” Mr D. A. Patterson, general manager of the National Airways Corporation said today. He had just returned from overseas. New Zealand, he said in an interview, was on the faraway fringe of these develop-

ments, but must nevertheless be vitally affected, and must keep in step with the solutions which overseas air operators were striving to find.

Partly the new problems were caused by increased volumes of traffic and partly by increased speed of aircraft. This produced a combination with which existing systems of management and handling of traffic could no longer cope adequately. Beyond N.Z. Reach

The more advanced techniques which great airlines were working on were beyond the reach of New Zealand, but nevertheless the principles and some parts of such systems were applicable and necessary.

Simplication of ticketing and reservation was one of these, and he instanced, as an illustration of advancement, a computer system of inquiry, reservation and ticketing. The programme was set on the computer at the booking office by punching buttons “round the world if you liked”—and when that was done the answer came through in onetwelfth of a second. Aboard Aircraft With bigger and bigger aircraft on the way—like the Boeing 490-seat 747—the

trend would inevitably be for immigration, health and similar formalities to be carried out aboard the aircraft, said Mr Patterson. Customs examination might become a sample check —say 50 out of the 400 or more. Or it might be that customs formalities would be even more simplified—as the Philippines had taken the lead by accepting the statementt by bona fide tourists of what they were carrying. (That, however, was outside N.A.C.'s concern. Everywhere there was concern over the disparity between time in the air and time on the ground. When supersonic aircraft were flying, passengers would cross between London and New York airports in a couple of hours, but they would be three hours just getting to and from airports. In this regard, the airlines represented at the Bournemouth Commonwealth Air Operators’ conference were agreed that it was the job of the airlines to carry people between airports, and it was the job of the municipality to get them to and from airports.

“In 10 years every major airport will be out of date. The whole thing has to be rethought,” he said.