THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1928. COMMERCIAL AVIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19924, 18 April 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1928. COMMERCIAL AVIATION.

At a time when "Atlantitis" or some kindred affection so generally afflicts eminent aviators, and public attention is so intensely attracted by the fortunes of their soaring ambitions, the facts scheduled in the Lufthansa Aeroplano Company's time-table restore flight to the welcome level of everyday utility. Germany has long been soberly airminded. Side by 6ide with the building of new Junkers machines, each a little bigger than the last—a feat in construction that has made possible the Bremen's notable achievement—there has been a steady care for the perfecting of less extraordinary craft. Workaday civil aviation has been brought to so high a pitch that Germany's claim to be supreme in it is readily credible. To have every important German town connected by air transport, and Berlin linked thus with practically every European capital, and to be able to map out the many regular tours announced for the coming European summer, is an accomplishment of great merit. This particular company, it may be noted, operates with full national scope. At the end of 1925 two companies, the Aero-Lloyd and the Junkers, shared between them the control of all German air lines. They were amalgamated in January of 1926 into the Lufthansa company, which has ever since enjoyed a monopoly. The Reich, the federal States and the whole of the municipalities in Germany have contributed to its capital fund, amounting to £1,250,000. From these various sources it also receives subsidies. Established on so wide and secure a basis, it has exploited the possibilities, of commercial flight to the full with its eighty lines and increasing fleet of aircraft. As the particulars of its summer time-table indicate, it is zealously intent on developing new features in the carriage of passengers and freight. It is in the rapid rise of its passenger figures that this company shows the rfio«t interesting advance in the two years of its operations, although its mail and freight statistics evidence a similar growth. Folk are naturally less timid about trusting their letters and merchandise to any new sort of travel than their own precious selves; yet passengers by the Lufthansa's lines numbered 102,681 last year, whereas the number in 1926 was 56,268. This increase was commensurate with the increase in total mileage, but is not thereby wholly explained, for the number of lines opened and aeroplanes despatched during tho year did not advance correspondingly. Even had the increase been only equal to the increase in facilities, it would still have demonstrated the maintenance of the- air sense for which Germany is remarkable. German jubilation over the success of the Bremen's east-to-west transatlantic flight is not merely patriotic: it betokens an appreciation of the possibilities of flight; and it is this phase of the national interest that is most instructive. Where this exists, the development of civil aviation is certain. There was an illuminating happening toward the erid of last year when the Leipzig Fair was in prospect. The company put into operation a special daily return service between Berlin and Leipzig—and all seats in the five large aeroplanes employed were booked a week in advance. Business men appreciated the fact that they could get their business done in a day and return at night—a feat impossible by train. The fares were very little higher than those by rail, arid hotel "expenses were eliminated. Actually, there was economy in every way. When the conveyance of mails and goods is considered, there is found the same inventiveness. For instance, by an arrangement reached a few months ago, a bill of freight can be made out for goods sent by railway and air jointly; the one act of consignment effects all that is desired by way of "through" transport.

This enthusiasm for commercial aviation is not, of course, confined to Germany; but it has there been most thoroughly and practically indulged. With characteristic keenness to profit by research and invention, the Germans have seen in flight an opportunity to strengthen their economic position. It behoves other nations to avail themselves of the same means with at least equal ardour. Broadly speaking, it must be said that they U„g behind. Neither Britain nor France, in spite of a great deal of activity, can show comparable results. In the United States, although purely mail services, working in conjunction with tho post office, have been fostered, thero has been very little catering for passenger traffic. Canada has specialised in air surveys and in the use of aircraft to facilitate the dis covery and extinction of forest fires. Probably, when the reliability of aircraft has been estab-

lished —according to popular standards—in tho transport of mails and goods, thero will bo a rapid rise of confidence to the point at which passenger traffic is regarded with' equanimity. To demand absolute reliability is to ask more than any means of locomotion can furnish. Even walking has its perils. What Germany has discovered, and is applying to practice, is the fact that a very high degree of reliability has been reached, a degree high enough to justify organising air-services, even for passenger traffic, on an extensive scale. Nothing approaching the use of other means of transport has yet been registered, even in Germany; but the rapid increase of the Lufthansa's business shows with what alertness commercial aviation is being developed there, and points a moral for other peoples.