LONG-DISTANCE AIR TRAVEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23693, 28 December 1938, Page 10

LONG-DISTANCE AIR TRAVEL

TRIBUTES TO PASSENGERS (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 24. Many tributes to air transport are paid by passengers who travel across the Empire by flying boat. Passengers are invited to comment on their air journeys, and to make any suggestions, all of which —many affecting details of catering, cabin equipment, and amenities at halting points—receive prompt attention from the departments concerned.

Travellers of all types pay tribute to Imperial Airways service. A company director who has lately flown by the African route writes: “ Once more, I can only say that I have enjoyed every moment of my journey.” A civil engineer who has flown from Malaya to England “considers your arrangements for the comfort of passengers are admirable.” A mining expert, after flying from Africa, reports “a most enjoyable journey,” while a technical consultant, after a flying boat trip from Egypt, declares: “ From now on I am a passenger by your services.” A doctor summarises his impressions of a flight on the Africa route in the words: “It would be a sheer insult to ask for better service.” An army officer, after an aerial voyage out to China, writes: " I have travelled a number of times by Imperial Airways, and am filled with admiration for the organisation and efficiency of your company.” While a London business man, on reaching England from Australia by air, remarks: “In all my previous travel experiences, including three trips round the world, I have never been so well looked after.”

HONOUR FOR A SENIOR-MASTER PILOT

One of the senior-master pilots of Imperial Airways, Captain D. C. T. Bennett, has been honoured by the British Guild of Air Pilots, who have awarded him the Johnson Trophy, which is given annually for the achievement which, in the opinion of the Guild, represents the best feat of the year in aerial navigation. The flight which won Captain Bennett the award was his piloting this summer of Mercury—upper component of the Short-Mayo composite aircraft—from Ireland non-stop over the North Atlantic to Montreal, and then on to New York. This flight was all the more memorable because it was the first non-stop air crossing of the North Atlantic by a heavier-than-air machine carrying a commercial load.