New jets follow lead set by flying boats

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 29

New jets follow lead set by flying boats

Three weeks ago a sleek white Boeing 767 touched down at Rarotonga to a colourful welcome. Cook Islands International had arrived direct from Sydney on its inaugural flight, marking the beginning of a weekly return service between Australia and Rarotonga, and New Zealand and Rarotonga. The airline is wholly owned by the Cook Islands Government which has signed an agreement with Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services to operate, manage and market the airline. It is now almost 35 years since Air New Zealand’s forerunner, TEAL, established an air link between New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands and Tahiti. It was immediately dubbed the “Coral Route.” The initial monthly flights in the 45seater Solent flying boat soon became fortnightly as passenger demand increased. The route was firmly established at a time when flying boats had been withdrawn from service by most airlines, making TEAL one of the last carriers in the world to transport passengers and goods in this manner. To those who travelled the Coral Route during the 19505, the picturesque islands seemed to be another world, far removed from the bustle of civilisation. After leaving home at Mechanic’s Bay,

Auckland, the Solent flew to Laucala Bay in Suva. The first stop next morning was Satapuala Lagoon, Apia, Western Samoa, where the crew and passengers rested for 12 .hours before going on to Akaimami Lagoon on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Here, while the flying boat was being refuelled from 44-gallon drums floated on a raft, passengers could disembark for a swim followed by coffee, tea, orange juice or, simply, coconut milk. In Tahiti the welcome was also festive. The flying boat .stayed a couple of days so that it could carry replies to the mail it had brought in. This nostalgic decade came to an end with the last flying boat Coral Route service in September 1960. The Solent was pensioned off to the Auckland Museum of Transport and Technology while the landplanes — DC6s, then Electras — flew in to the South Pacific region. In the late 1960 s jet-powered aircraft like the DCB entered the scene, followed in the 1970 s by DClOs and, later, 87475. Today Air New Zealand flies three times a week between Auckland and Rarotonga — two non-stop flights and one retracing part of the original Coral Route via Nadi and, after Rarotonga, on to Papeete.