Withdrawal should make Hobart link more secure

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 7

Withdrawal should make Hobart link more secure

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor Christchurch’s twiceweekly air link with Tasmania should become more secure next year when Qantas withdraws its short-lived AucklandHobart non-stop service from April 1.

The airline introduced its weekly Boeing 767 flights about 11 months ago, but they were poorly supported. The service, did, however, draw some traffic away from the Saturday flights of Air New Zealand and Australian Airlines between Christchurch and Hobart. Australian Airlines

(formerly TAA) pioneered the route in 1980 with the other Australian domestic carrier, Ansett. Two years later Ansett pulled out, leaving Australian Airlines the sole survivor until Air New Zealand introduced same-day competi-. tion with a Boeing 737 in 1983. While scrapping its direct link, Qantas will nevertheless provide a new connection to Hobart via Melbourne — a prospect that will not please Australia’s domestic airlines. Australian Airlines has already criticised the decision as another move by the international airline into its domestic ter-

ritory. The general manager of Australian Airlines, Mr James Strong, said he was not surprised that Qantas was withdrawing its nonstop flights because it had been using an aircraft that was too big for the route. (Australian Airlines used a Boeing 727 with 140 seats; Air New Zealand a 8737, 109 seats, and Qantas, a 8767 with 220 seats.) Mr Strong said that Qantas’s Auckland service had diverted traffic from his airline’s ChristchurchHobart flights.

“While our service is not carrying as much traf-

fic as was predicted several years ago, we have promoted it and built it up from nothing to the point where it attracted two competing services,” said Mr Strong. He sees the proposed new Melbourne-Hobart link as an extension of the Qantas domestic network.

It could have harmful effects on the frequency of domestic schedules, he warned.

“Qantas should leave it to the domestic airlines, who are more suitably equipped, to provided a feeder service to its international operations from Melbourne,” Mr Strong said.