Air N.Z. travel delays likely soon

Press, 17 December 1988, Page 1

Air N.Z. travel delays likely soon

By

LES BLOXHAM,

Travellers on Air New Zealand and Mount Cook Airlines could face flight disruptions and delays on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday if the Engineers’ Union goes ahead with threatened nation-wide industrial action. Ansett New Zealand and some of the smaller commuter airlines will not be affected. Union employees of Air New

Zealand and subsidiary Mount Cook, include baggage loaders, drivers, and maintenance engineers. Some disruptions on Monday seem inevitable, particularly if the union proceeds with a twohour stopwork meeting planned to start at 2 p.m. The purpose is to give members a chance to confirm their earlier decision to strike from 4 p.m. on Tuesday. If they do decide to strike there will be widespread delays

and cancellations between 4 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Wednesday. For South Island international travellers, such action would disrupt Air New Zealand’s weekly Southern Connection direct service from Sydney to Los Angeles via Christchurch, Nandi, and Honolulu late on Tuesday. The airline also has other flights scheduled from Christchurch to Melbourne and Brisbane within the period under threat. Long-haul international flights

from Auckland on Tuesday night and into Auckland early on Wednesday would be affected. The flow of tourists through the country would be further reduced by grounding the domestic fleets of both Air New Zealand and Mount Cook Airlines. Travellers worried by the possibility of disruptions have flooded Ansett New Zealand with bookings to the extent that only a limited number of seats on some flights are now available.