AIR SERVICES

Northern Advocate, 23 March 1935, Page 3

AIR SERVICES

NEGOTIATIONS FAIL. CLAIMS OF THREE FIRMS. iSpecial to “Northern Advocate.” l WELLINGTON, This Day. Negotiations for the purpose of confining the companies competing for the trunk air service license have proved abortive. Three firms again presented their claims to the Transport Co-ordination Board yesterday. In evidence, Mr G. P. Finlay, . for Great Pacific Airways, Ltd., said his company would be governed by a New Zealand directorate, with the inclusion of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mr E. T. Fisk, a wellknown Australian business man.- It was the first step towards the initiation of a far-flung Imperial service. The company also proposed to* serve a greater area than did the Union Steam Ship Company, and would call at Wellington. The Union Company’s proposal to omit Wellington was an effort to conserve its ferry traffic. The proposals outlined in the application were based on a joint report by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and the late Mr C. T. P. Ulm.

Representing the Union Company, Mr C. G. White referred to the call at Wellington, and said it would be easy for an applicant to say, after the Pfcense had been granted, that it could not call there. “We are honest enough to show that we would not call there until the facilities are better,” said Mr White. Ultimately, his company desired to be concerned in the transTasman service, and would be kept in touch with developments in that reP “We anticipate that some 12 to 18 months must elapse before a service can be regularly established in the eyes of the public,” said Mr H. J. Knight, of New Zealand Airways. “During that period, particularly in the earlier months, it is our intention to concentrate on the transport of freight. For the first month or two our service would run from Palmerston North to Dunedin, but our aim would be to connect with Auckland and New Plymouth at the earliest possible date. We can safely estimate that within three months we could have a regular serpice running from Auckland to Dunedin.” Mr H. M. Mackay, managing director of New Zealand Airways, said he had been offered technical advice by Imperial Airways, who could supply all the technical staff for the successful establishment of a service.