Long odds on flights

Press, 2 March 1981, Page 6

Long odds on flights

By

LES BLOXHAM

travel editor ' ■"

The odds are better, they say, in the “Golden Kiwi”. From a list of 250 names, a mere six or seven might get a seat to Sydney. . The scene at check-in time at Christchurch Airport has been the same for days: hundreds of stranded travellers huddling around the counters, watching, waiting to hear if their names are among the lucky ones, called for a boarding pass. But the business of allocating seats is anything but a gamble. It is a simply a matter of priority: Air New Zealand passengers who have been waiting the longest are given first preference. Qantas ticket-holders are next in the pecking order. Air New Zealand’s traffic superintendent at Christchurch Airport last evening, Mr G. C. J. Paton, defended the airline’s right to “look after its own” first. “Any airline will give priority to, clearing its own passengers,” he said, “but we

are also doing our best for those from Qantas.” Air New Zealand’s problem in clearing the backlog is compounded by the fast that its Tasman flights now are

heavily booked anyway. Passengers holding confirmed bookings are, understandably, allocated seats as a matter qf course. Should their flight be cancelled, however, as was last Friday’s TEI7S to Sydney, then they become the new names at the bottom of Air New Zealand’s priority list. The chances stand-by passengers have of getting seats in a fully booked aircraft, depend entirely on the number of *‘no-shows”: passengers who hold bookings but who fail to report for the flight. Take flight TEI7S to Sydney, for example. It was fully booked but when the flight was closed half an hour before its scheduled departure the airline’s manifest officer reported to the stand-by officer that there were 15 empty “Usually it’s only half that number,”said Mr Paton. “But we always take the names -from the top of our Boarding passes are then

• issued and the names of the I lucky ones destined to go , home are called over the public address system. Mr Paton said that all passengers left behind were then asked to register and confirm their intention to travel at the stand-by counter. The stranded passengers had been understanding in spite of the atmosphere of uncertainty and frequent disappointment. “I think they realise we are being fair,’’: said Mr Paton. “I can honestly say that during the past five days I have hot heard one cross word.” . < ■ ' . Mr Patoh said that staff had not been offered .bribes by stranded; passengers desperate for.seats; Air New Zealand has had a staff of 17 working at the airport, on, its- 1 ..(international flights for almost-continuous 14-hour- days? Since the. industrial troubles began.? Few passengers could disagree that they are coping admirably with a most frustrating situation.