Aircraft leave on time

Press, 8 September 1976, Page 11

Aircraft leave on time

Tasman flights into Christchurch were late on Monday, because Australian air controllers were working to rule. And ground staff at Christchurch International Airport worked quickly at night to get a Qantas Boeing 707 away on time for Sydney. The flight arrived at 7.30 p.m. from Melbourne. It had to be away again at 8.45 p.m. and airport staff unloaded, cleaned, then reloaded the 707 to make sure it was. An Air New Zealand DCIO, due at Christchurch at 5.55 p.m. arrived one hour and 20 minutes late at 7.15 p.m. But it was not due out for Melbourne until 10 p.m., so there was no great rush for airline staff.

On Sunday night, because of the hard work of Air New Zealand and National Airways airport staff the Qantas 7478 Jumbo jet left in time to beat the 11 p.m. Sydney airport curfew by 20 minutes. Because of the controllers’ work-to-rule, the Jumbo, which should have landed at Christchurch at 6.30 p.m. did not touch down until 8.44 p.m. Normally it takes about 90 minutes to turn round a jumbo at the airport. But the Qantas southern area manager (Mr D. Menzies) described the 59-minutes turnaround—unloading, cleaning and reloading the jet with 320 passengers and 15 tonnes of freight—as an excellent effort.