Air New Zealand still waits for visa advice

Press, 8 November 1986, Page 9

Air New Zealand still waits for visa advice

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

Air New Zealand will continue to fly passengers to Papeete without visas until such time as it receives advice to the contrary from its manager in Tahiti. This is in spite of a ruling by the French Embassy in Wellington that all travellers must hold valid visas. The French applied the visa requirement to all visitors to France and its territories in the wake of recent terrorist bombings in Paris. Airlines flying from Auckland to Noumea and Papeete, however, have been carrying passengers without visas on the apparently unofficial understanding that immigration officials will issue visas where necessary on arrival. Air New Zealand said

yesterday that it would continue this practice until it heard differently from its Papeete mana-, ger. Continental Airlines received advice yesterday from the embassy that passengers had to have visas. It has decided it will not accept any passengers who do not have them. In Australia, Qantas also is not accepting visaless passengers on its flights to the French territories. “Until a few days ago travellers with Australian passports were exempt,” said a Qantas spokesman in Sydney. “Now we have been advised that everyone must hold a visa before arrival.” No-one in the French Embassy in Wellington would comment on the report in “The Press” yesterday about travel industry confusion and frustra-

tion over the visa requirements. But a call later revealed that the embassy is advising travellers that visas are definitely required. Anyone travelling without a visa, or airlines that carried them, did so at their own risk, the embassy said. Visa applications posted or sent by courier will not be accepted by the embassy. Processing is taking about 14 days.