Strike strands 155 passengers

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 1

Strike strands 155 passengers

A special Air New Zealand flight to Christchurch will rescue 155 passengers stranded at Sydney by a strike of Public Service Association members at Auckland Airport. The flight, in a chartered T.A.A. aircraft, will land at Christchurch Airport at 7.55 p.m. today, before returning to Sydney an hour later, according to an Air New Zealand public affairs spokesman, Mr Bob Wallace. Air New Zealand’s worst problem caused by the strike was how to get passengers from Sydney to Christchurch and Auckland. A flight from Singapore will be diverted through Sydney on its way to Auckland, but about 220 passengers would be left stranded in Sydney,

said another spokesman for the airline, Mr John Freer.

The special flight from Sydney should solve this problem as some passengers would have alternative arrangements, Mr Freer said. P.S.A. members voted to strike for 24 hours from noon yesterday over the Government’s plan to make Auckland Airport a company. The strike affects crash firemen, airport security, flight service, and telecommunications and administrations staff but not air traffic controllers. Air New Zealand also put on special flights from Christchurch and Wellington to Hamilton yesterday, then took the passengers by bus to Auckland. This

had been arranged with the consent of the P.S.A., said Mr Wallace.

A total of 7000 passengers have been affected by the strike, including about 2000 on international flights. The early notification of the strike, however, had allowed alternative arrangements to be made, Mr Freer said.

Sydney, had been delayed until after the strike, Mr Freer said.

Both Mount Cook Airline and Newmans Air ran Auckland flights yesterday, but neither laid on extra services to take advantage of the strike. Mount Cook Airline reported a small increase in bookings yesterday ...but Newmans Air staff said there had been.no noticeable increase. A spokesman for Amount Cook Airline said most of the services at Auckland Airport affected by the strike did not apply to his airline. Mount Cook;used smaller planes and >was confident that its /own fire-fighting equipment made up for the absence of crash fire services. These services were riot available in many of the secondary airports usep by the airline in any casej

Seven return flights between Christchurch and Auckland were cancelled, but there were still seats available on flights between the two cities this afternoon, he said. Five international flights to or from Christchurch were affected. Three of these flights, from Melbourne to Christchurch, and from Christchurch to Brisbane and

A flight from Christchurch to Sydney yesterday and a return flight to Hobart today had been cancelled, but alternative arrangements would be made for passengers. These included using seats on a Qantas flight.

Mr Freer said that Christchurch international flights were affected by the strike because radio communications in the New Zealand air traffic control zone were handled from Auckland.

Freight would not be affected because the airline had sufficient warning of the strike to arrange to send it before or after the 24-hour strike, he said.