Safe Air cuts regular car ferry service

Press, 5 October 1985, Page 2

Safe Air cuts regular car ferry service

PA Wellington The Cook Strait airfreighter, Safe Air, has scrapped its scheduled car ferry service between Wellington and Blenheim, said the general manager, Mr Ron Tannock. Casual bookings would still be taken depending on loadings of other freight but generally the firm favoured higher-yielding cargo, he said. Mr Tannock said that when Safe Air lost business from trade cars, which comprised the bulk of the vehicles carried, taking private cars too became difficult. The airline’s Bristol Freighter aircraft could carry two cars but with occasional bookings for just

one car half the aircraft was taken up with a single load, and with more freight flying one way than the other, a round trip would be flown for just one car. Mr Tannock said that Safe Air would still carry cars, depending on space availability, for $220, including the air fare of the driver. Extra passengers were charged $35 each. Safe Air’s car business suffered during the autumn Cook Strait trade war, with special rates offered by maritime competitors luring most of the air freighter’s business away. In May the airline’s marketing manager, Mr Gary Ransby, estimated that the weekly car business had fallen from 80 vehicles a week to 10.