AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 20, 24 July 1934, Page 6

AVIATION

BOOM IN AUSTRALIA

NEW SERVICES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, July 14.' The announcement this week that a private company would inaugurate an aviation service between Sydney and Melbourne directs attention to growth in Australia of this means of transport. The organisation concerned in the latest move is ■ the New 'England Airways, which, for some months, has been carrying on a successful service betweea Sydney and Brisbane. It is now .proposed to link the three • eastern cities, and to do this effectively it is likely that night flying will be resorted to.' American aeroplanes are likely to be employed because, .it is claimed, they are designed for commercial work calling for regularity. In aviation Australia is in what might be termed the transition stage, but by the end of this year will be among the leading, nations of the world m commercial flying. ' The vital extension of the English air mail is about to be inaugurated, and by the end of the year the following services should be in operation; Darwin to Singapore- (2333 •, ? anTiß-cllarleville-Brisbaue £roQ ™lles): Charleville-Cootamundra (G29 miles); Katherine-Perth C"52 miles), connecting at Katherine with the Darwin-Cootamundra services; Mel-bourne-Hobart, via King Island and Launceston (475 miles); and the minor services, Cloncurry-Normanton , (215 miles) and Ord-Eiver-Wyndham (158 miles).

These new services will cover practically the whole, of Australia. This year the Federal Government accepted tenders for all except the Oril-River-Wyßdham services in Western Australia, and, in addition, decided' to'give South Australia direct' access to the oversea air service bj\ establishing a weekly service f rom, Bourie, in New South "Wales, to Adelaide.' .The contract for the. Mejboumc-Hobart service will ensure a", daily service (except Sunday) across Bass^ Strait' The Government's estimated' liability for the next five years is £133,000, but considerable reveniie.is'expected from mail , surcharge, fees. It is estimated that ! the regulaj air lines ,in Australia will I total 11,000 miles .nest year, and that approximately' 1,500,000 miles will be flown by all Government services in. 4935 ; The JErisbane-Sydney-Melbourne service will not .carry any* Government subsidy,.

During" the'past two and a •half years the number'of licensed public aerodromes in Australia has increased from 82 to 132. ".