AIR TRAVEL BOOM

Evening Star, Issue 26091, 3 May 1947, Page 7

AIR TRAVEL BOOM

TWELVE COMPANIES IN AUSTRALIA FARES KEPT DOWN BY OPEN COMPETITION (From C. R. Mentiplay, N.Z.P.A. - SpOoial Correspondent.) SYDNEY. May 2. Every day more than 2,000 people are travelling by air about Australia in air liners, which each 24 hours put 60.000 miles behind them. The demand for air travel throughout the continent dias/i3ached.';such proportions that estimates" state .that by the end of the year 4,000,000 people will have flown on the internal, air network.. This wfll constitute another record in the series which have been established year by year. To-day Australia is one of the most airminded countries in the world, with an enviable record of safety and pffioiency on all air routes. In 20. years the air lines have expanded until now the*internal services cover 50.000 miles. The system of open competition has resulted in fares being kept down without loss of efficiency ■- until oh certain routes the public has the advantage of speedy and comfortable air travel at rates, comparable with thosq of the railwavs. From Sydney you can reach London in (S 3, hours. New York in 94. Singapore in 18, Hongkong in 31, Paris in 64. Moscow in 78, Cape Town in 74, and San. Francisco in 40. but it is the rapid/post-war development : of the internal air lines which is most remarkable. (More than 200 cities and towns are now brought within a few hours of each other by air. From Perth to Townsville, for instance, is as far as the triple crossing of the Tasman, but planes cover the distance in a day. A huge system is operated daily by 12 companies, one of which claims to be the largest internal air operator in the world. While another is one of the world’s oldest. One operator links more than 70 isolated Northern Territory towns, /banishing loneliness and bringing in the latest that civilisation has to offer. Another company has 31 air liners, its service inclifding six Skymasters, and it operates over 8,000 miles of internal routes. Freight trade is booming, but airways officials say that what has been accomplished will be as nothing to the developments within the next few months. Increasing numbers of Dakota aircraft are being turned over from passenger carriers to freighters. Within sis months large quantities of beef from the Northern Territory will be flown to any part of the continent where adequate landing facilities exist. On the regular rdutes air freighters operate to deliver parcels at costs which, measured in terms rif service, are cheaper *than those of surface transport. In 1946 one company shifted 13,000,0001 b of freight, establishing an Empire civil aviation record. The figurewill be raised again this year. Speed and passenger comfort are not being neglected, for before the end of the year eight of the different types of the latest British and American uif liners will make, their debut in the Australian skies. These will include four Lockheed Constellations, five Consolidated Convairs, Handley Page Hermes, Miles Marathon, Miles Aerovan, Short Solent, Short Sealand, and possibly a Boeing Stratocruiser.