NEW AIR SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20841, 7 April 1931, Page 11

NEW AIR SERVICE.

LONDON TO SYDNEY. IMPORTANT ADVANCEMENT. FIRST FLIGHT THIS MONTH. [from OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.3 SYDNEY, April 2. At last, it seems, a definite step has been taken in preparing the way for a regular mail and passenger aeroplane service between Australia, and Tjondon. The announcement this week that Imperial Airways, Limited, had arranged for two experimental flights from London to Darwin aroused tho greatest interest. The first flight will begin on April 4 and the second flight on April 25. The link between Darwin and Sydney will be provided by tho Queensland Air Services, the organisation known as Qantas. For many years now the possibility of establishing a service has been discussed with tho Imperial authorities, and the impression is that the failure of the Commonwealth to assist financially has been tho cause of tho delay. The Dutch air services have also made frequent attempts to interest the Commonwealth, but the Commonwealth has always expressed a determination that all air services over Australia should be controlled in Australia. When the Government announced that it would not permit a foreign service to carry mails between Darwin and the capitals the Dutch company ceased to have any interest in the project.

Strangely enough the announcement of the trial flights did not come from the Government, but from Rudders, Limited, the Australian agents for Imperial Airways. The managing director of Rudders said that he had not been informed of the type of machine that would be used. The first plane was expected at Darwin on April 19 and the second plane on May 10. They would leave again on April 27 and May 17. It was presumed

that mails would be carried on the outward journey, and no doubt arrangements would bo made for mails to be carried back.

Sir Keith Smith announced yesterday

that the company for which he was the Australian agent, Vicars Aviation, Limited, was providing a machine in which Mr. Neville Stack was to leave London this week for Darwin. That flight would be in the nature of an experiment, and might have an important bearing on the policy of Imperial Airways, which was extremely anxious to extend its services to Australia, providing sufficient inducement was offering. Mr. Stack would bring mails to Australia and he had planned to do the round trip in three weeks.