N.Z. return sought by Canadian airline

Press, 14 April 1980, Page 4

N.Z. return sought by Canadian airline

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor ' . The Canadian airline, CRj Air,- has approached the Ministry - of Transport in Wellington about the. possi-] bility of resuming its once| popular service between I Auckland and Vancouver. The - airline, one of the pioneers of the South Pacific ’ flew to New Zealand from -1950 until 1969 when its fights were suddenly withdrawn by the Government in a move aimed basically at protecting Air New Zealand. ; But CP. Air has kept its presence in the region with a twice-weekly DCB service between Sydney and Vancouver through Nandi ano Honolulu. Npw DCIO-30s ■ will be introduced to the route- in • July with a new; link between Honolulu and; Tlie New Zealand manager 1

i of CP Air (Mr. ET S. Pren-|i Itice) confirmed yesterday :f [that two of the airline’s vice-presidenta from Van- ( couver were in New Zea-j [land recently : for’ informal i talks with senior officers of < I the Civil Aviation Division it of the Ministry,. the Tourist i and Publicity Department,;s and the. Minister of Tourism! (Mr Cooper)- ' Their visit was prompted c bv the release in .December, of the Government’s new.j international aviation policy i [which is designed to encour- i age the growth of in-bound < tourism. ! “We are, and always have ! been, very interested in re-u [turning to New Zealand,” i ■Mr Prentice said. “But it i must be a viable operation.” ' ! Having tested the climate j( jin Wellington, tbe airline’s i (executives are assessing the ‘situation before deciding .

whether to formally apply for rights. The Secretary for Transport (Mr A. J. Edwards) said yesterday that the Ministry would consider any application in the light of the benefits such a service might offer New Zealand: as a whole. “Much would depend on what the Canadians would offer in return," he said. Air New Zealand has never flown to Canada, and is unlikely to do so in the immediate future, but the absence of a bi-lateral agreement would not necessarily shut out CP Air: the Government set a precedent recently by granting unilateral rights to Air Nauru. Last year 14,296 Canadians visited New. Zealand, 'more fhan'a of the total of visitors from North America.