LURE OF THE AIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21952, 13 May 1933, Page 19

LURE OF THE AIR

TIME TABLES FOR SUMMER FLYING BY AIR TO ANYWHERE. (From Odb Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 6. British , air transport is preparing for what promises to be the busiest season it has ever known. When summer time tables come into operation on the Imperial Airways routes, four services in each direction daily will be scheduled between London and Paris, while on May 1, when' there will be further augmentation, as many as five services daily will fiy between the two capitals. The growth of air travel may be judged from the fact that, whereas in early days Paris was the only destination which could be booked from Croydon by air, this summer there will be 140 air stations throughout Europe to which high-speed air journeys can be made, and approximately half of these destinations will be within a day’s flying from London. As to others, few will be more than a couple of days from Croydon by the accelerated and interconnected services which are now becoming available. Moscow, via Berlin, Stamboul via Vienna, or Madrid via Marseilles, will all be within approximately two days of London. Throughout Europe there are now some 30 air transport companies, operating approximately 60,000 miles of routes, and fre i quent conferences are held at which improved facilities are arranged for through air journeys in all directions. “ Opportunities for pleasure trips by air will abound this summer,” said an Imperial Airways official. "Le Tonquet will be only one hour five minutes from Croydon, while after breakfasting in London you will be able to join one of our air liners and dine the same evening in Lugano or Lucerne. A day’s air trip to Paris will give you more than six hours there, and you can dine comfortably in the air during your return flight. In an aerial week-end you will be able to visit the wonderful Hartz Mountains of Germany, spend Sunday on the Rhine, or reach and return from other Continental beauty spots which it would be impossible, between Saturday and Monday, to visit in any other way than by air. A week’s flying tour, carefully planned, will give you bird’s-eye views of most of the great cities of Europe. "Lightning air trips, along the Empire routes, can be made to Palestine, Egypt, and the cities and shores of the Mediterranean. A week after ascending from London one can be in the heart of the African gamelands, while fascinating flights, free from the heat or duet of surface travel, can be made high above the desert by the Indian air mail, or on down the picturesque Arabian coast. “ Becoming increasingly popular, now, are combined trips in which tourists go part of the way by air and other stages by land or sea, In this respect there is a growing co-operation between airways, railways, and steamship lines, and many fascinating tours are available in which aeroplanes, flying boats, ships, motor cars, and trains all play their respective parts. “ When you remember the time which flying eaves, and that it gives you so much longer for sightseeing on hind —apart from the wonderful panoramas seen from aloft —the cost of airway travel compares favourably with that of travel by any corresponding form of first-class surface transport. Our modern air liners have spacious, luxurious saloons, in which noise is reduced to a minimum. Stewards servo meals and refreshments from well-equipped buffets. On either long or short journeys you fly with effortless ease. The fatigue of night travel is avoided, because you sleep comfortably at an hotel each night when on long flights, and arc fresh next morning for the resumption of your aerial voyage. "All of which being so, it is hardly surprising that more than 50 big air liners should, at busy times, be passing in or out of London’s air port daily, or that traffic should have grown to such an extent that, during the summer, thousands of passengers fly to and'fro above the Channel every week.”