ANTARCTIC TOURISM Hotel Prerequisite For Flight Plans

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32219, 11 February 1970, Page 1

ANTARCTIC TOURISM Hotel Prerequisite For Flight Plans

A mini-hotel may have to be built on the Ross lee Shelf, 14 miles from McMurdo Station, before commercial flights from New Zealand to Antarctica can begin.

The building must be able to hold up to 90 luxury-class tourists in transit between an aircraft and the floating hotel in McMurdo Sound.

Provision of a terminal building is one of the con- ; ditions the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of ! Transport requires to he met before tourist flights will be authorised. Other Conditions Other general conditions in! the report by three of the (division’s officers who visited! [Antarctica in November ln-1 ! elude:— That the runway used will be Outer Williams Field, because Williams Field, five miles from McMurdo Station and built on annual ice, has inadequate bearing strength in January and February each year for the proposed I four or five flights. That because a white-out can occur at very short notice, closing the runway for 30 minutes to two or three days, any commercial aircraft must carry sufficient fuel to fly from New Zealand to Outer Williams Field and return to New Zealand without landing in the Antarctic. That special protective clothing must be supplied to passengers and crew, and that aircraft emergency food packs must be prepared for Antarctic weather. That minimum reliance is to be placed on the fuelling, servicing and ground transport facilities of the United States Navy at McMurdo Station. [The commander of the United States Navy Antarctic support force, Rear Admiral D. F. Welch, recently was quoted as saying that plans for tourism had given him fits in the last year.] Requirements for navigation, radio communications, and the use of radio aids at McMurdo Station have also been laid down.

Policy Group Mr 1. F. B. Walters, Assistant Director (Operations) of the Civil Aviation Division in Wellington, said yesterday that when Air New Zealand could comply with these requirements, the Government w<)uld put the airline’s proposal before the United States Government’s Antarctic policy group which directs the activities of the United States Navy on the continent. Mr Walters said that the Navy could not provide the meteorological forecasting, communications, and flight following services necessary for a commercial flight without receiving direction from the policy group. The importance of a terminal building at Outer Williams Field was made apparent in November to the five men from the division and Air New Zealand. After landing, they had to sit in the aircraft for seven hours because of a sudden white-out. Air New Zealand, which has been planning commercial flights to the Antarctic since last year, considers there are no real operational problems. Without a ship in McMurdo Sound to provide accommodation, however, it could do nothing. The airline still has hopes of beginning a service to Antarctica in the summer of 1971-72.

Fuel Needs Fuel does not appear to be as difficult a problem as handling people on the continent. DCBs and the United States

Military Airlift Command Starlifters can use the same fuel. Air New Zealand has to determine whether carriage of about 10,000 gallons of fuel a flight would be economic in relation to the number of| passengers it could carry. It could pay the agency taking; fuel to the Antarctic for the! Navy but would have to store! its fuel. Storage bladders' could be used but the fuel ; would have to be transported from a supply ship to Outer • Williams Feld. Although Air New Zealand was reported last week to face formidable opposition frota the United States Navy and scientists in its bid to inaugurate the service, an airline spokesman said that there had been fine co-opera-tion from the Navy which had promised support within limits but had not defined the support Decision On Site Mr R. M. Thomson, superintendent of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research said in Christchurch yesterday that before the Government would permit a New Zealand company to construct a terminal building at Outer Williams Field the proposal would have to be discussed by the McMurdo Sound land management and co-ordination group—himself, representing New Zealand, Admiral Welch, for the United States Navy and Mr P. M. Smith, for the American scientific community. If there was no objection to the locality and type of building, permission would be granted. Mr Thomson said that he was sure a suitable locality for such a building could be found although it might not be the first the promoters suggested.

High Costs Although there was no great operational obstacle to Antarctic tourism, a promoter would have to spend considerable sums on the necessary facilities at Outer Williams Field Mr Thomson said. “It is no good having a half-baked effort. If it is done,

it must be done in a big way,” he said. Once authority for a terminal “hotel" was given, the problem would be to decide who would construct and pay for it. This is still a matter for negotiation between Air New Zealand and the Lind-I blad Travel company which is putting its cruise ship, Lindblad Explorer, into McMurdo as a floating hotel. Unless plans are made for [the construction of a build!ing within the next few [months, the inaugural service lis likely to be delayed until the 1972-73 season.