Flight Chch wanted leaves Auckland

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 9

Flight Chch wanted leaves Auckland

By

LES BLOXHAM

travel editor

An air link that Christchurch wanted, but Auckland got, took off from Mangere for the first time yesterday. British Airways’ new service to London via Perth and Singapore is its third flight each week between the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

The airline’s other flights pass through Melbourne, Perth, and Bombay.

Earlier this year British Airways seriously considered using Christchurch for its third service, but eventually decided to stick to Auckland.

The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, and other interested parties had lobbied hard to woo the

airline. Now they are concentrating their efforts on a renewed interest in Christchurch by Singapore Airlines.

Sir Hamish urged the airline during a visit to Singapore in May, 1981, to start applying pressure then for rights to fly to Christchurch. Although the airline expressed interest, it never followed up with an application to the Government.

Any deal will have to entail Government-to-Government negotiations, with a reciprocal agreement for Air New Zealand to fly an extra service to Singapore.

The airlines’ four Boeing 747 flights a week provide 83,200 seats a year in each direction, but many of these are filled by passengers

transiting through Singapore to Europe and the United Kingdom. Singapore Airlines flies beyond Singapore, but Air New Zealand’s flights stop there.

Only a few Singaporean tourists visit New Zealand and even fewer New Zealanders fly to Singapore. For the year ending August, 1985, New Zealand received 8100 tourists from Singapore. For the year ending March, 1985, 7039 New Zealanders visited Singapore, 1500 down on the previous 12 months. South-bound flights are full at this time of the year, but there are still seats available on north-bound flights. The new British Airways service should ease the position a little.