EMPIRE AIR TRAFFIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22195, 23 February 1934, Page 12

EMPIRE AIR TRAFFIC

The continued growth of traffic on the Empire air lines of Imperial Airways is shown by recent figures. During six months April to September last year, the passengers, mails, and freight carried on the routes to Egypt, India, Burma, and Africa showed an all-round increase of 45.54 per cent, as compared with a similar period of 1932. The percentage increase in passengers wa3 43.92. In mails it was 46.18; and in freight 40.59. By the air mail to India, as revealed by the latest figures, appreciably more than 40,000 letters are now being air-borne weekly, while on the extension which was established recently across India, between Karachi and Calcutta; the loads in each direction are already averaging approximately 14,000 letters a week. Statistics for the first six months of 1933 in regard to air transport in South Africa show that, during this period, the total number of passengers by airway who disembarked in South Africa was more than 150 per cent, greater than in a corresponding period of 1932, while the number embarking on air journeys in South Africa was 250 per cent, higher than in the previous year. During the same period of six months, so far as air mails to and from South Africa wer.e concerned, the inward and outward loads showed increases of from 130 to 160 per cent.; while air freight to destinations throughout South Africa was 162 per cent, higher.