Milestones

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 18

Milestones

Spelling it out Qantas’s reservations computer recently advised check-in clerks to provide a passenger with extra assistance with baggage and airport formalities. The reason? “The passenger is illeterate,” the computer warned. Continental’s jets Continental Airlines will put powerful new planes into service between Los Angeles and Auckland in' October. The company has bought two DCIO-30s, now being completed at McDonnell Douglas. With engines almost a third more poerful than the standard DCIO, the planes will fly three times weekly, non-stop, between Honolulu and Auckland. The same flights will also fly the Auckland-Sydney leg and return via Auckland and Honolulu. Four other flights weekly will serve Sydney, two via Honolulu and two via Nandi. Faster service at L.A. New customs and immigration facilities at Los Angeles Airport are speed-

ing up the processing of passengers who bow have to make only one stop. Twelve new lanes have been added to the previous 20 in a unique airinflated 39,0005 q ft structure. Satisfying job The wives of two Qantas employees were overheard in. Sydney the other day discussing their husbands’ work. “Mine is being trained • in the Qantas stimulator,” said one to the other. The airline’s staff magazine notes that it night be the rea-

son why the technical crews walk around the Jetbase with such satisfied expressions. Sth African tourism World-Wide travel to South Africa reached record levels last year. The number of visitors from Australia was - up by 17 per cent and from New Zealand, by 30 per cent. DCIO replacements Singapore Airlines will replace its DClOs on the Auckland-Singapore route with new Boeing 747

“Superb B” jumbos on October 3. They will carry 378 economy and 28 first-class passengers.. Features will . include an upstairs lounge with 10 slumberettes and an executive cabin zone for full-fare economy passengers. The airline’s New Zealand manager Mr Richard Khoo) said the bigger aircraft reflected increased traffic numbers in both directions. Flying Dutchmen Contemporaries of famous painters throughout history have often felt that their creative friends didn’t really have their feet on the ground. Now a coterie of famous Dutch painters is indeed taking to the air — in a new fleet of Airbus A3lo’s to be introduced by KLM in 1983 and named after the painters. They will be called Rembrandt, Hieronymus Bosch, Albert Cuyp, Nicolass Maes, Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Vincent van Gogh, Pieter de Hoogh, Jan Toorop, and Johannes Vermeer. Airline offers lure British Caledonian Airways is offering passengers from Australia and New Zealand free flights in the United Kingdom if they travel on its new Hong KongrLondon route. In a new deal beginning this week, British Caledonian will start flying be-

tween Hong Kong and London on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Passengers from Australia and New Zealand could slash the costof their travel to London by about $3OO by using the airline’s new standby fare system, they could also enjoy a free one-night stopover in Hong Kong in each direction. -‘Anyone travelling with us on our ‘bottom dollar’ fare of $289 SNZ34O) will be entitled to continue on to G 1 a s go w , Edingburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, or Jersey for free,” said the airline’s regional director in Sydney, Mr Roger Henning. Queensland by rail The popular daylight railcar tour of the Queensland coast is operating again this year. This tour operates in both directions between Brisbane and Cairns, and features accomodated overnight stops, sightseeing tours of towns on route, and spectacular scenery. The duration of the tour is five days; the cost, SAIBO per adult.