COMMERCIAL FLYING

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 7

COMMERCIAL FLYING

Request to Aero Clubs LIMITATION SUGGESTED Increasing commercial activities of aero clubs, particularly in districts over which civil companies were operating, was in March last the subject of a communication from the Director of Air Services soliciting the assistance of the New Zealand Aero Club in order to avoid such a state of affairs. The matter is commented upon in the annual report of the aero club, presented at the annual meeting yesterday, in which it is stated that clubs were quite prepared to limit their commercial activities to what might be termed “taxi work,” but to ask them to abandon commercial activity of every description, unless the Government were prepared to provide the funds to enable them to carry on, was an impossible request. The report stated that the director, in his communication, made a 1 point of t<be fact that clubs received a certain amount from the Government by way of subsidy, and had the loan of Government machines, and Implied that they should limit their activities to training. The letter was fully considered by the council at. its meeting in June, when it was decided to inform the director that the functions of aero clubs in New Zealand were not confined to instructional work, but included the provision of landing grounds and services, and the provision of machines for air travel, although it was agreed that clubs should not establish or operate regular services in competition with commercial aviation companies. It was pointed out that the Government had reduced the subsidy payable to aero clubs from £5OO to £225, and the clubs were compelled to supplement their iucome from other sources, and from members’ subscriptions, by undertaking occasional taxi work, and several of the clubs had invested considerable sums in the purchase of machines for the purpose. Unless they could earn additional revenue they would be compelled to go out of existence, and the service which they rendered to the respective communities which they served would be lost, as also would the facilities for training which were provided by the clubs. It would be impossible to maintain the aerodromes which they had provided, which were freely used by such commercial companies as were operating in New Zealand, and unless the Government was prepared to make a very substantial increase in the subsidies granted to the clubs they -would be compelled to continue to earn revenue by commercial work, or cease to function.