DUTCH AIRLINERS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 271, 12 August 1938, Page 13

DUTCH AIRLINERS

Inauguration Of New Service

AUSTRALIA-LONDON IN

EIGHT DAYS

On July 3 a K.N.I.L.M. (Royal Netherlands Indies’ Airways) Goekhrtd Super Electra left Batavia for Sydney, and on July 7 it departed from Sydney and inaugurated the Java air express. On June 28 a K.L.M. (Royal Dutch Airlines) Douglas loft Europe for batavia and connected with the first K.N.I.L.M. airliner for Sydney. The first flight of the Java air express from Sydney connected at Batavia with the west-bound K.L.M. airliner, and the flights marked the first occasion on which the Dutch flag was carried from the North Sea to the Pacific Ocean and vice versa. It is approximately 4000 miles from Sydney to Batavia, but the journey in the K.N.I.L.M. Lockheed Super Electras has been reduced to 20 flying hours. The K.L.M. airliners fly the <lOOO miles between Batavia and London in oi d<iys. nnd the K.N.1.L.. schedule to Batavia means that Sydney has been brought within eight days <’f London. . _ „ “The .Intercontinental Air Express, a publication issued by the combined Netherlands Indies and Dutch Lines, states that the schedule of the Dutch air services between Sydney and Batavia and between Batavia and London will be accelerated in accordance with technical developments to aircraft and the improvement to ground organisation in the different countries over which they fly. It is aimed to decrease regularly the times taken for the trips, and to increase also the comfort of long-distance air travel. The Netherlands Indies and Dutch Lines state that the day is not far distant when it will be possible to fly between Sydney and London in three or four Though the K.L.M. and K.N.I.L.M. airliners can bring mails from Europe to Australia, it is part of an arrangement with the Commonwealth Government that the Dutch airliners will not convey mails from Australia. The K.N.LL.M. machines cannot carry passengers within Australia, but they can book them from Australia to the Netherlands Indies, including Bali and Java, where they can join K.L.M. airliners for Europe. . . Passengers from Australia may join K.L.M. or K.N.I.L.M. airliners at any point along the route between London and Koepang for Darwin, Cloncurry, Longreach, Brisbane and Sydney.