Airline Plan Supported

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 14

Airline Plan Supported

The Christchurch City i Council’s airport authority likes the proposal by American Airlines to fly one or two j services a week from Tahiti direct to Christchurch. J The airport manager (Mr A. I. R. Jamieson) on behalf J of the authority, has written to the president of American Airlines (Mr G. A. Spater) 1 offering to be of any assistance. The letter, which will be given to Mr Spater on his arrival in Auckland on Wednesday, says that the proposal for a direct flight to the city from Tahiti is in accordance with the authority’s thinking of the last two years. It says that the airport authority has made continued overtures to the Government and a number of overseas airlines to establish a direct North American link with the -South Island. Mr Jamieson said the authority knew that services to - North America out of the South Island were subject to negotiation of bilateral rights and adequate traffic potential. But, he said, it was felt that the upsurge of tourism in the South Island in recent years justified such a service. A number of overseas airlines had been approached in recent years advising them of facilities at Christchurch, which was New Zealand’s first fully International airport