TASMAN AIRWAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 44, 20 August 1940, Page 9

TASMAN AIRWAYS

THE FIRST QUARTER

OVER 200 PASSENGERS

Since the Tasman Empire Airways service commenced regular crossings of the Tasman on April 30 the flyingboats Aotearoa and Awarua have carried between Auckland and Sydney 209 passengers, 114 of them passengers from Auckland to Sydney and 95 coming from Australia to New Zealand. Such a patronage during the first quarter of the new service, commenced under circumstances of the uncertainties and the difficulties of war years, holds promise of the greatest expansion in the future, greater again when the trans-Tasman and transpacific services are linked by proof of service in a world air route. Air mail has been disrupted between New Zealand and Australia by the impossibility of maintaining the through Empire service, but the air-mail figures still are good. Carriage of air freight cannot commence with a bound, but must develop with experience of advantage and service. The results of the first quarter of operation probably exceed all anticipations of the management of the Tasman Empire Airline, having regard to war conditions. The figures for the first three months of operation may be summarised thus: May— Passengers, 62. Freight, 6061b. I Mail, 49171b (including philatelist and first-cover mails). June — Passengers, 33. Freight, 7291b. Mail, 31891b. JulyPassengers, 114. Freight, 6551b (including company stores). Mail, 27131b. The figure that shows most strikingly the remarkable degree of patronage is that of percentage of theoretical carrying capacity, taking into account passenger seating, mail carriage, and freight loading. For July this figure was 89.5 per cent. In this month the average of seats occupied was 12.4 on outward flights and 11.5 on inward flights. Women passengers have run busy business men closely in patronage of the new transportation, in the proportion of 40 to 60. Mails carried during July averaged 304.51b inward and 2991b outward. Flight times for the month averaged 8 hours 37 minutes eastbound and 9 hours 31 minutes westbound.' i There are already on the reservation i lists 87 forward bookings, 55 to Sydney and 32 from Sydney. All the indications are that the figures for August will be an advance upon those of each of the months of the service so far. THE PROGRESSIVE BAND. The flight—the immense time-saving and the experience of fast winged transport—is the thing, but passengers, except those few who have no sentiment in their make-up, probably all tuck away somewhere for future enjoyment the souvenir "traveller's certificate," which is issued on each flight. It certifies, against a bright map and ocean background—sports, sunshine, whales, and dolphins after the old cartographic style, brought up to date with the flying-boat as the centre piece of all—that so and so has flown across the Tasman in such and such an R.M.A. flying-boat, "thus joining, the band of progressive travellers who cross the Tasman .by air," and is signed by the commande^of the ship. Menus, too, are in demand, for breakfast and luncheon; they are as full menus as are presented on shipboard, but these are limited and do not go round all passengers who cross the Tasman by air. Wine lists accompany the menus and on the back of these are lists of odds and ends the passenger may ask of the stewards, from cigarettes to fruit salts, cotton wool to smelling salts, games, books, and magazines, sewing and writing materials, and barley sugar —and still some more.