Fiji seeks better deal for airline
From LES B LOXHAM, Travel Editor Nandi A plea for airlines to provide a better service between New Zealand and Fiji and to examine critically the existing range of fares was made by Fiji’s Minister of Tourism (Mr J. Mazoa) at the annual convention of the Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand in Nandi. Mr Mazoa said that there should be more co-operation
in the field of civil aviation. “Australia and New Zealand have done much toward the development of civil aviation in the South Pacific,” he said. “Their membership of the South Pacific Air Transport Council which has been responsible for the development of Nandi Airport is an example. “However, now that AilPacific has begun flapping its wings to fly to newer and more profitable destinations, We find resistence from our larger neighbours,” he said. Mr Mazoa told delegates that it was the Fiji Government’s intention to ensure that Air Pacific obtained more meaningful and equitable rights based on the accepted principle of fair and equal opportunity. He said he was pleased that the New Zealand Government had at long last given approval to Air Pacific to fly directly to Auckland every fifth week in addition to the four flights at present through Tonga. Mr Mozoa said that Fiji’s tourism was largely dependent on foreign airlines. “We need their support and cooperation and we want them to examine critically the fare structures currently operating in our part of the world.”
“We also want them to provide better services with respect to times and frequencies,” said Mr Mazoa. An Auckland travel agent claiming to represent “a number of rank and file members” interrupted the panel discussion at the convention yesterday to criticise the executive for spending too much time on the problems of the Pacific Islands when there were “far more pressing matters much closer to home.”
Mr K. Keech, of Auckland, said he was speaking on behalf of a number of rank and file members who dis-
approved of the time taken on matters relating to the Pacific Islands and the way the programme had been assembled. “I think it is about time we started getting our own house into order because if things do not pick up very shortly our friends in the Pacific are not going to have any New Zealanders to visit them. “I acknowledge that we are in the customary trough period but 1 hasten to add that that the trough has now gone deeper and longer than it ever did before. We are now in the middle of an unprecedented lull in business,” he said. Mr T. A. Clarkson, of Dunedin, said he had travelled further than any other delegate. “I came to a travel agents’ conference and expected to hear our problems being hammered out,” he said. The comments were greeted with applause and the president, Mr G. F. Alpe, agreed to allow an immediate debate. Mr A. Buchanan, the director of the Tonga Visitors’ Bureau, who was taking part in the panel discussion when it was interrupted, reminded delegates that he had been invited to take part. “We did not invite ourselves. I appreciate that you have domestic problems’and I will step down from the table while you sort them out,” he said. However, delegates briefly criticised the Link organisation which offers low fares, mainly for ethnic groups, to Europe. The discussion lapsed after only a fewminutes and the business then drifted back to the hohum topics of Pacific tourism. Delegates who wanted to discuss such controversial topics as the travel tax and the proposed registration of agents failed to take their cue.
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Press, 9 October 1976, Page 5
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607Fiji seeks better deal for airline Press, 9 October 1976, Page 5
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