Second busy day at airport

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33451, 5 February 1974, Page 14

Second busy day at airport

It was another busy clay at Christchurch Airport yesterday, with 29 domestic and nine international flight departures.

National Airways, with the aid of three special Boeing [ [ 737 jet flights to Wellington and chartered DCB and DCIO [flights to Auckland, managed i iby late last night to clear [ I the backlog of stranded Sun-' day passengers. Because of weather fluctua- : lions at Wellington Airport , ■ there were a number of I minor flight delays throughlout the day on scheduled < : services. The airline’s biggest delay (five hours) involved an Air; [New Zealand DCB under charter, which was to have I: : left Christchurch at 1.50 p.m. Mainly because of Wellington’s being closed on Sun-' day. and problems with/ positioning, the jet did not/ ■ leave Christchurch utijil 6.30 p.m. There was no backlog of :

passengers on international flights and although all flights .were fully booked, no out- ! ward-bound passengers were left in the terminal last night. An Air New Zealand 'spokesman, said it was a [ successful if busy day for his staff. There were a number of minor delays, the worst being two hours. Aircraft which left yesterday included a British Airways VC 10, an Air New Zealand DCIO. a Qantas 747, an East African VCIO, and a British Caledonian Airways Boeing 707. A number of Commonwealth Games teams have [still to leave Christchurch, but the last should have left by tomorrow. International [flights are expected to remain heavily booked for several weeks.