Mount Cook told to ‘stop bleating’

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 2

Mount Cook told to ‘stop bleating’

The Mount Cook company had to stop bleating and accept a little competition from other air services in the South Island, Mr W. K. Wakeman told the Air Services Licensing Authority in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Wakeman is the managing director of Air Charter Christchurch, Ltd, which has applied to the authority for non-scheduled routes between Christchurch and Mount Hutt, Christchurch and Franz Josef, Christchurch and Nelson, and Christchurch, Milford, Queenstown and Christchurch. An application for a Christchurch/Blenheim nonscheduled route was withdrawn. It also wants its seat restriction lifted from 16.

The authority (Messrs J. H. 0. Tiller, C. L. Siegart and P. A. Hansen) reserved its decision.

Mr P. K. Wakeman, a director of. the company, said Air Charter felt there was a neeed for a non-scheduled service on these routes which could grow if the company

had the chance to advertise and operate.

Air Charter is a licensed charter and air taxi service, flying out of Christchurch.

Air Charter could offer a direct flight from Christchurch to Nelson in the morning. There was a demand for this as Air New Zealand had stopped its early morning direct flight to Nelson, said Mr Wakeman. David Alexander MacLachlan, the commercial manager of the Mount Cook Group's airline division, said that his company objected to Air Charter’s application for the non-scheduled southern routes as an adequate service was already provided by existing licensed operators. The Mount Cook Group was only objecting to the Air Charters application for nonscheduled services on the routes south of Christchurch and to the lifting of the seating restriction.

Mount Cook had been flying into the Franz Josef and Milford Sound area for many years' and had proved to itself and the industry that

scheduled or non-scheduled services over these routes were impractical. Peaking in the tourist industry and the weather made it impossible to maintain a regular timetabled service. These routes were best serviced by charter and taxi licences. Mr K. Wakeman, said that the Licensing Authority should be . concerned about the monopolies in New Zealand. Mount Cook was always bleating that it was doomed. However it had to be prepared to accept a little competition. It was in the public interest that an alternative service out of Christchurch to Milford Sound and Queentown existed. Mount Cook did not need the protection of the Licensing Authority. Counsel for Mount Cook, Mr P. H. B. Hall, said that Air Charter had provided no evidence that the existing services on the Southern routes were unsatisfactory or that new traffic was available to warrant an additional service.