NEW AIR SERVICE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 141, 16 May 1936, Page 7

NEW AIR SERVICE

PHILIPPINE PROPOSAL. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 15. The establishment of an air service to connect Manila, in the Philippine Islands, with New Zealand and Australia, is the subject of preliminary investigations by Mr F. V. Blair, owner of the Grand Central Airport at St. Petersburg (Florida), who arrived by the Monterey from the United States. Mr Blair, who is the president of the Florida State Airport Association. is accompanied by his general manager, Mr John L. Lee, and also by his mother, Mrs Blair. In the short time at his disposal before continuing his voyage to Sydney, Mr Blair visited Mangere aerodrome and also obtained a general impression of the geography of Auckland city and harbour from an airman’s viewpoint. From Sydney Mr and Mrs Blair and Mr Lee will travel to Singapore and then to Manila, where Mr Blair will report the result of his investigations to his principals. At the present stage the details of his mission were confidential, Mr Blair said. If a service were established, however, amphibian machines would almost certainly be used. Spanish interests at Manila were connected with the proposed enterprise, but he was unable to reveal the identity of the individuals or concerns on behalf of whom he was investigating. The proposed service would bo quite distinct from that which Pan-American Airways were to operate between San Francisco and Auckland, although it would 1 1 in, a measure supplementary to it. He added that the future of the scheme would depend on the report he made on arrival at Manila.