Planes return to Auckland empty

Press, 28 February 1981, Page 1

Planes return to Auckland empty

By LES B LOX HAM, travel editor. Travellers stranded at Christchurch Airport had salt rubbed into their wounds yesterday when three Air New Zealand DClOs took off for Auckland with 800 empty seats. The unions involved in the black ban against the airline at Auckland Airport are believed to have granted a special dispensation for the aircraft to be flown back to their maintenance base, provided that no passengers or freight were carried. The flights, which left, within a few minutes of each other about 4 p.m., enabled at least 50 of the 100 crew members stranded in Christchurch for the last few days to return to their homes. Some of the crew members had been forced to stay as far afield as Ashburton because of the acute shortage of hotel beds caused by the Qantas

strike and the unexpected diversion of Air New Zealand flights to Christchurch after the engineers’ dispute closed Auckland Airport. A brief statement issued by the airline last evening said the DCIOs were “repositioned simply to secure them in the hangar in anticipation of a resumption of services.” Reliable sources report that the aircraft were nearing the time for routine maintenance checks. One also was due for an engine change.

Two DCIOs still remain, with their crews, in Christchurch. It is possible that one of these might be used for a Tasman crossing tomorrow,' but a decision on this will not be made until later today. Although TEIBS to Melbourne at 11.55 a.m. today is one of the casualties of the union bans, the airline so far has not cancelled TEI7S to Sydney at 11 a.m. tomorrow, but whether it will-depart, is uncertain. -

', Indeed, the whole weekend promises to be a bad one for anybody wanting to get anywhere over much of the airline’s network of routes. In addition to all international flights, 42 domestic services have been cancelled today. They include all flights to, through, and from Auckland and Hamilton. ■ _ . In Christchurch, five direct flights to Auckland and two inward flights have .been grounded. Connecting flights will terminate at Wellington. There was no indication late last evening that the situation tomorrow will be any better. In fact, it now seems likely that major disruptions to services will continue into Monday. The plight of travellers waiting to cross the Tasman still remains grim. With both Air New Zealand and Qantas grounded, the only service to Aus-

tralia today will be Trans Australia Airlines’ flight to Hobart at 4.35 p.m. The 150-seat Boeing 727 has been fully booked for days and there are also 140 people waiting on'-a standby list for last minute cancellations.

T.A.A. had hoped to fly a special service to help relieve the back-log' of passengers, but the flight had to be' abandoned when it became apparent' that there could be groundhandling difficulties.

For the airline’s Christchurch manager, Mr I, Rivers,, and his staff .of two, it was yet another frustration in a week that has seen hundreds of desperate travellers ' clambering .for a seat on a flight home, via Hobart.’. On a much larger scale, Air New Zealand’s reservations staff of 40 have had their busiest time -on record. Since-'Monday-they have handled more ■ than 20,000 calls, twice as many as usual. .' The Qantas dispute in Sydney had entered a very delicate stage, the airline’s manager of press relations, Mr P. Dunch, reported last evening. Talks between the company and union representatives had continued in Melbourne yesterday before being adjourned until Monday. The situation appears to be worsening. The Press Association reports that Australia’s biggest public service union, the '50,000strong Administrative and Clerical Officers’ Association, has pledged to implement bans which threaten to seriously dislocate the airline’s services.

The dispute is now also likely to ground all air services. Tomorrow 600 storemen and packers in the Sydney oil industry will stop work. Their national organiser, Mr M. O’Grady, said consideration was being given to cutting off jet fuel supplies.