MOUNT COOK TO BUY ANOTHER 748

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32320, 11 June 1970, Page 1

MOUNT COOK TO BUY ANOTHER 748

Mount Cook Airlines has ordered a second Hawker Siddeley 748 prop-jet airliner and is considering more replacement aircraft for its southern fleet, according to the company’s public relations officer (Mr E. G. Beckett).

The purchase was approved at a recent meeting of the board and was subject to the necessary guarantees being obtained from the Government and the National Airways Corporation, Mr Beckett said in Christchurch yesterday.

The new aircraft will bring the company’s fleet to 33. Delivery of the 748 is expected about the middle of next year and the aircraft will enter service in July.

Mr Beckett said increased traffic over the southern network and the introduction of the direct Rotorua-Mount Cook link from October 19 this year had made the addition necessary. The new 748 will be similar to that in service but with

minoi- cabin improvements, including a new seat design.

Mr Beckett said that the company urgently needed more new aircraft to back up its services based on Queenstown. “Our new 20-seat Twin Otter has generated so much traffic that it has become impossible for us to pension off our small fleet of seven-seater Dominies. “The board is now considering a modern twin-engined aircraft 'smaller than the Otter as a support, possibly for this coming summer,” he said. “The nine-passenger Britten-Norman Islander is considered a strong contender.”

Mount Cook Airlines passenger traffic for 1969 had increased by 34 per cent over the previous year, said Mr Beckett.

Recent overseas trips by the company’s managing director (Mr H. R. Wigley), the assistant general manager

(Mr M. L. Corner), the marketing manager (Mr D. L. Snelling) and Mr Beckett had contributed to the increased demand for the summer and for 1971.

Bookings by established North American tour operators had increased by up to 50 per cent. In addition, planning for the South Pacific was well under way.

“Jumbo jets would swell the volume of passengers by about 25 per cent by the summer of 1971, according to many experts,” he added. The company’s Rotorua service would ensure that a greater proportion of tourists who arrived in Auckland and went down to Rotorua would visit the South Island; just as the new service had already been instrumental in many agents planning their itineraries for entry to New Zealand through Christchurch. for later departure from Auckland, he said.