Pilots Will Not Crew Extra Aust. Flights

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 1

Pilots Will Not Crew Extra Aust. Flights

(.Veto Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. New Zealand airline pilots will not crew extra flights to make up for strike-bound Qantas services.

They had already made this clear to Air New Zealand, the secretary of the Airline Pilots’ Association, Captain J. W. Dickinson, said in Wellington today.

A ban on extending route mileage or carrying capacity to make up for airline strikes was part of the policy of the International Federation of Airline Pilots* Associations.

He said New Zealand pilots would follow other I.F.A.P.A. rulings on the Qantas strike. This would include a refusal to man all flights to and

from Australia if the Australian Government took threatened action against the Qantas pilots. The Government may take emergency powers to force the pilots back to work under threat of possible imprisonment. Captain Dickinson said if this happened the I.F.A.P.A. could declare Australia “black.” The Qantas pilots stopped work 10 days ago over pay claims and other issues. The stoppage is costing

the company about 300,000 dollars a day in lost revenue, and the country 1.5 million dollars a week in overseas exchange. Air New Zealand is running its flights to capacity to make up for the services which Qantas flies to and from New Zealand each week.

The Wellington district manager for Air New Zealand, Mr C. K. Silcock, said today the company was cutting back freight carriage to fit in passengers. Only certain types of cargo were affected, he said. Air New Zealand had so far managed to accommodate nearly all intending passengers. “Very few have been inconvenienced, although there must be some who would normally have flown but who have chosen not to now,” he said. Queues for Seats New Zealanders are queuing up at the Qantas counter at Mascot, Sydney, clamouring for a seat home, according to passengers arriving in Auckland from Australia today. “It took me two days to get a seat to Auckland,” said one Auckland businessman.

“I only got one in the end by ringing Auckland and getting them to put the pressure on there.” He and others claimed that Qantas, which handles Air New Zealand passenger movements in Sydney, was giving preference to Qantas through-passengers to the United States or Europe. “If you are a New Zealander you take a back seat,” he said.