Flight to Honolulu

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 1

Flight to Honolulu

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor Christchurch has at last a direct air link with Honolulu — at least for today. The lingering union dispute at Auckland has prompted Air New Zealand to schedule a DCIO flight from Christchurch to Los Angeles, via Honolulu, at 1 p.m.

Airline staff were busy last evening advising passengers of the flight, but several seats might still be available this morning for late bookings.

Christchurch will also be the revised destination of this morning’s Air New Zealand flight from North America. It should arrive from Honolulu about 8.30 a.m.

Travellers today again face cancellations and

delays on many international and domestic services.' All flights into and out of Auckland have been cancelled this morning and there appears little hope of services running this afternoon. Auckland and other airports north of Hamilton remained closed yesterday, disrupting the travel ararrangement of 3100 domestic and 1100 international passengers. More than 70 flights were cancelled.

At least 70 travellers, including the crew, of the DC 10 which made the last, hurried departure from Auckland before the flareup on Tuesday are still waiting in Christchurch for their bags. They were in two containers left on the tarmac at Auckland. The arrival of the Los

Angeles flight this morning will create big problems for airline staff who must find accommodation for an estimated 150 passengers who remain the airline’s responsibility because they are officially in transit.

The airline still has 120 “guests” in hotels from the two DClOs that arrived from North America on Tuesday evening. “We are facing a big task in finding beds for these additional passengers,” said Mr G. C, J. Paton, Air New Zealand’s traffic superintendent at the airport. “Most hotels are already full.”

Air New Zealand flew t7O passengers stranded in Australia to Christchurch on another special service early this morning.