Battling For Seats

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 3

Battling For Seats

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

SYDNEY, December 20.

Incredible scenes have erupted at Sydney airport this week as scores of New Zealanders, stranded by the Qantas strike and desperate to get home in time for Christmas, battled for spare seats on every aircraft leaving for New Zealand.

Tempers rose in the 100 degree heat of the international terminal as men, women and children milled round traffic counters demanding flights.

Air New Zealand officials were threatened with physical violence, one man tried to leap a ticket counter to strike a Qantas traffic clerk, and angry prospective passengers formed a protest committee. Airline officials estimated that more than 3000 people trying to reach New Zealand before Christmas have no chance of a flight. Between 30 and 40 people have camped at the airport during the last two nights, hoping for last-minute vacancies on early-morning flights. A total 130 passengers were told today that their long wait was at an end, and they would fly on a special DCB flight for Auckland early tomorrow morning. But after a scare about engine trouble they were told the aircraft would leave Sydney at 3.15 a.m.

Air New Zealand announced today five extra trans-Tasman flights, making about 800 extra seats available before Christmas.

A company spokesman said: “This will make all the difference. The two specials scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday will clear all the people who have spent between 24 and 36 hours at the airport.

“The situation is going to get worse, and we are investigating the possibility of chartering aircraft from other airlines.”

Two extra DC4 return flights will be made between Auckland and Sydney by way of Norfolk Island, using aircraft chartered from T.A.A., the internal Australian airline.

“For all the people who

have been at the airport pounding the counter, there are another 500 or so sitting at home by the telephone,” an Air New Zealand spokesman said.

People at the airport this morning included five English migrants, who are emigrating to New Zealand after travelling overland across Europe and Asia. They are the oldest residents of the terminal, having been bedded down there since Saturday. They hope to fly to Auckland in the morning. A newcomer, 28-year-old Mr

F. Bourke, of Dunedin, is returning home penniless after three years and a half overseas.

“I have spent six days of the last fortnight waiting around airports and haven’t even had enough money for a cup of coffee,” he said. Two Australian girls, Frances Delamothe, of Melbourne, and Iris Yob, of Newcastle, began a month’s scheduled camping holiday of New Zealand by camping overnight at Sydney airport. “We’ll stay until we get a flight,” said Iris.