COMMERCIAL AIR SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 201, 22 May 1936, Page 10

COMMERCIAL AIR SERVICES

Auckland -W ellington POSSIBILITIES UNDER DISCUSSION Use of Rongotai Aerodrome The possible extension of commercial air services from Auckland to Wellington, suggested by the Minister of Transport, Hon. R. Semple, in opening the second reading debate on the Transport Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday night, was the subject of further reference by the Minister in an interview yesterday. The present position is that Union Airways, Limited, is discussing with the Government the possibilities of an extention of its services to Auckland, but so far the company has not made a formal application for a new license. “The Government has received an application from Mr. T. S. Withers, of Auckland, on behalf of Great Pacific Airways, for a subsidy for a proposed trunk service from Auckland.” Mr. Semple said. “The matter has been fully considered and the Government s decision is that the subsidy' cannot be granted. Mr. Withers has been informed of that decision.” Commenting on his statement in the House, the Minister said representatives of Union Airways had discussed with him their company’s plans for a service between Wellington and Auckland. It was proposed to run a daily service both ways, with stops at Palmerston North and New Plymouth, and the scheduled time for the journey would be three hours. Details of the proposals had not yet been discussed but the whole matter would be investigated thoroughly when Union Airways applied for a license. The Minister said he understood that Union Airway’s’ application would be for a license to carry passengers and mails and that the proposed service would be co-ordinated with those other services already carried on by the company. Until the application for a license was made and considered, the possibilities of the new service could hardly be discussed. It is gathered that if Union Airways applied successfully for a license for an air service between Auckland and Wellington, use would be made of Rongotai Aerodrome. In this connection some interest attaches to the passage in the House yesterday of the Wellington City Reclamation and Empowering Bill, which vests an area of a little over nine acres in the Wellington City Council, empowers the council to reclaim portion of it from the sea and also gives the council power to borrow for the reclamation and levelling of land to be used as an extension of Rongotai Aerodrome. IMPORTANT AERIAL DEVELOPMENTS Wellington in Touch With Many Centres An air service connecting Auckland and Wellington, via New Plymouth, is the most important internal aerial transport development possible now, because it paves the way for giving Wellington aerial access to Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay as well as Manawatu, Taranaki and Auckland, and coincides with the extension to Hokitika of the present service from Wellington to Nelson, linking 'Wellington with West Coast centres on the South Island in addition to the present connection with Blenheim, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. Union Airways Ltd. at present runs between Palmerston North and Dunedin, co-ordinating at Blenheim with Cook Strait Airways to serve Wellington. By this means Dunedin and Christchurch passengers for Wellington travel from Blenheim by Cook Strait Airways, and Wellington passengers for Christchurch and Dunedin change at Blenheim from the machine cf Cook Strait Airways to that of Union Airways. Wellington, however, has no aerial connection by established regular service with apy part of the North Island. A Union Airways northward service from Wellington would provide a direct service to Palmerston North and New Plymouth as well as Auckland. In addition it would, in time, connect Wellington with Hawke’s Bay arid Poverty Bay, because East Coast Airways, Ltd., which at present conducts the service between Napier and Gisborne, proposes to extend to Palmerston North with calls at Hastings and Dannevirke. It made a preliminary application for this route before the discontinuance of the Transport Coordination Board. East Coast Airways has also considered flying from Gisborne to Auckland, via Opotiki and Tauranga, and Mr. F. B. Cadman, of Auckland, has plans for a company connecting Hamilton, Te Aroha, Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki with Gisborne. Improvement ro aerodromes will, however, be necessary before commercial services will be able to operate through the Bay of Plenty. It is probable that the NapierPalmerston North extension will be the first to be made. With Union Airways serving Auckland through the west coast route and East Coast Airways connecting Gisborne witli Palmerston North, Wellington will have aerial connection by regular services with nianv centres of the North Island. In’ addition Cook Strait Airways intend to link Nelson with Hokitika about October, and this will place Wellington within reach by plane of Greymouth and Hokitika and a little later Westport, and at Hokitika connection will be made with Air Travel (N.ZD Ltd., which at present runs from Hokitika to Okuru in South Westland. Wellington will be linked when Auck-land-Wellington, Napier-Palmerston North and Nelson-Hokitika services are running with Palmerston North. New Plymouth. Auckland, Dannevirke. Hastings, Napier and Gisborne in the North Island, and Blenheim. Christ church, Dunedin, Nelson, Westport, Grevmouth, Hokitika and South Westland in the South Island. Extension to Auckland, through Opotiki and ranga, will probably be made when aerodromes are more highly develops in the Bay of Plenty, and probablj there will in time be at least a summer service through Napier to Taupo and Rotorua. Improvements at Rongotai. An announcement thatjis soon ns the traffic appeared to justify such a step Union Airways. Ltd., would extend its service from Palmerston North to

Auckland, with machines rather smaller than the four-engined air-liners at present used between Palmerston North and Dunedin, was made before the sitting of the Transport Co-ordination Board in Wellington last August. No mention was then made, however, of the possibility of that company serving Wellington. At that time Great Pacific Airways had an application before the board for a license for a service to connect Auckland with Invercargill, calling at Wellington. That company also sought the right to call at Palmerston North. An application for permission to do this was heard and decision was reserved, and had not been given when the board weqt out of existence following the change of Government. Since then the position has altered because of improvements mode . at Rongotai Aerodrome by the Wellington City Council. Kingsford Smith Street, the old boundary of the landing area, has been torn up and shifted about three chains to the westward, and the old bitumen plant has been removed and the ground that was formerly the'bitumen yard taken into the aerodrome. The seaward boundary has also been moved outward and the fence lowered. Fifteen acres have been added to the ground, and the northwest south-east runway has been lengthened by over a furlong. Work of the surfacing of the area is now in hand. The aerodrome is now on the way toward being much more suitable for use by commercial services than it was when the main air services were established about six months ago. In addition the council is given under the legislation now passed authority to reclaim part of the crescent-shaped bay near Moa Point at the eastern end of the Lyall Bay heach, and the top ’s being cut from Moa Point to reduce the variability of winds over the aerodrome and also to provide spoil for extending runways and for reclamation work.

The Mayor. Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, stared at a recent meeting of the Wellington City Council that provision would be made in a loan schedule for the further improvements necessary at Rongotai Aerodrome.

An emergency aerodrome for use when weather makes landings at Rongotai undesirable will be necessary as air services expand, and it is probable this will be somewhere northward of Paekakariki.