Charter failures upset students

Press, 16 April 1981, Page 1

Charter failures upset students

A Dunedin organisation, Southern Charter Services, has embarrassed two domestic airlines and some New Zealand university student bodies.

The organisation has been arranging and advertising cheap charter flights but none have got off the ground. Jeff Novak, of Dunedin, is behind the organisation. He has approached some university campuses in the last few weeks with proposals to provide charter services to fly students to the universities’ Easter tournament which will begin in Dunedin today. Mr Novak arranged to charter two aircraft from Mount Cook Airlines in Christchurch and one aircraft from Eagle Airways in Hamilton. But Mr Novak did not produce the required fees by the deadlines set by the airlines and the flights were cancelled.

Advertisements for proposed air and bus charters to the Easter tournament appeared round the Otago University campus early this month. They suggested that Air New Zealand aircraft were to be chartered, and named a Dunedin real estate firm as the ticketing agent. The president of the Otago Students’ Association Mr Frank Forster, was approached last week by the real estate company which complained that it had not agreed to act as ticketing agent. for the charters.

Air* New Zealand said that Mr Novak had tried to charter aircraft from the airline, but he was refused because the prices he proposed were “unrealistic.” Mr Forster said that he had dismissed Mr Novak’s proposals as “harebrained,” and had the advertisements removed from the campus. Student associations representing the universities of Auckland and Waikato had, in the meantime, arranged to use the proposed charters to transport their sports, teams to Dunedin for the tournament.

When Mr Forster learnt that the northern associations had paid a “substantial” deposit for the services, he advised them to make alternative arrangements. > At a national meeting of student associations in Wellington last week-end it was disclosed that the Auckland association had paid Southern Charter Services more money for the charters.

Approaches had also been made to the student associations of Canterbury and Victoria, Wellington. The president of the Canterbury association, Ms- Katrina Amos, said that she had been approached by a man claiming to represent Southern Charter Services who'wanted to

advertise the proposed charters on the campus.

After investigating his “vague” proposals, the association refused to have any further dealings with the organisation. Early. this week, the Auckland association was informed by Mr Novak that there had been a change of plans and that Mount Cook v would provide the aircraft for the charter.

The airline manager of the Mount Cook Line, Mr M. L. Jqrvis, last evening confirmed that arrangements had been made to charter two 48-seater aircraft to be used on a series of flights. “We believed the charters were related to carrying university students to a number of venues throughout New Zealand as part of the Easter tournament,” he said. Various charter flights, including one from Christchurch Airport to a rock concert in Auckland last evening, were offered by Southern Charter Services in an advertisement in “The Press” yesterday. The advertisement advised readers to obtain further details from the airport’s information desk. Neither the Christchurch City Council’s information desk nor the Air New Zealand information desk had heard of the Dunedin organisation, when asked yesterday. Mount Cook stipulated that a certain fee had to be paid by 10 a.m. yesterday just two hours before the first charter flight was scheduled to leave Christchurch. The deadline had been extended from noon on Tuesday. When the deadline was not met, the flights were cancelled.

Eagle Airways estimates it has lost $4OO, according to its managing director, Mr Malcolm Campbell. He

said that Mr Novak had arranged to charter one .of the airline’s 18-seat Bandeiriante aircraft last evening, but failed to produce the required feel The flight had had to be cancelled and the crew w'hich had been.on standby, was sent home. ; Mr Campbell said that the costs for wages and toll calls to inquire about Mr Novak might be difficult to recover. He described the incident as “a damn nuisance.” The controller of domestic air services policy at the Ministry of Transport in Wellington, Mr Christopher Fletcher, confirmed last evening that the air services Mr Novak was proposing required an air services licence, which he did not possess. v ' If he went ahead with the flights proposed he ( could be operating illegally and any airline which provided aircraft for such charters would run the risk of being regarded as a party to the breach, Mr Fletcher said.

When the Auckland association discovered that Southern Charter Services had not met Mount Cook’s deadline, they made alternative arrangements with Air New Zealand to get, their teams to Dunedin in time for the tournament, an association spokesman said.

Mr Novak telephoned “The Press” late last evening. He blamed the Auckland Students’ Association for reneging on its part of ’ the deal. I He apologised to any- | body who had been incon- j venienced by the cancella- > tions. !

When asked why the two information desks at I Christchurch Airport knew | nothing of his organisation, j or of ihe proposed charter ! flights, he said there had j been “a' bit of a blue.” ,

“That’s what happens when one person tries to do 10 people’s jobs,” he said.