No Encouragement for Endeavours to Extend Provincial Air Services

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26775, 19 May 1948, Page 4

No Encouragement for Endeavours to Extend Provincial Air Services

Special Reporter.

QUEENSTOWN, May 17. “ If we are going to wait for the Government to establish an air service within Central Otago, we are going to wait for many years,” said Mr W. A. Bodkin, M.P., discussing the question of transport services in the area this week. “A start could be made towards an efficient and comprehensive service if the Government would license the existing Southern Scenic Airtrips Company to do air taxi work anywhere. If this were done we would soon have other experienced ex-servicemen pilots starting additional runs from other centres such as Cromwell and Ranfurly.”

The benefits which would derive from an air service within the province are clearly seen by most residents of Central Otago, and lengthy comment to this effect would be far more difficult to escape than to induce. Instead of long, weary bus or train trips—and even the run to Dunedin by private car is extremely tiringlittle more than an hour would be needed to bring passengers from any town in Central Otago to a provincial capital in comfort bv air. Mail and Papers Mail and newspapers could be delivered on the day of despatch—even in the remoter districts with a replanning of the rural delivery runs to coincide with air arrivals and departures. Although finance, aircraft, personnel and patronage are all ready, the stumbling block of governmental permission enters into any consideration of such a service. The files of Southern Scenic Airtrips are bulging with replies to a brisk year of seeking for such permission, but all their efforts have met the departmental panacea for such a situation —“ the whole matter of licensing private operators is still under consideration. Applications for such permits involve the applicants in an unending shuttle between the Air Department and National Airways Corporation, one department handing the matter over to the other in what was described to the Daily Times as “ the only army racket of passing the buck." Nor do applicants retain mtich hope that their endeavours will eventually be successful, or that a direct and final answer can be expected. Existing Airfields Government authorities have stated on occasion Ihat airfields up to the required standard would be necessary before any service ctould be commenced, but experienced pilots claim that the majority of the existing airfields in Central Otago could, with little work, be brought into adequate shape. The airfield at Frankton, out-

side Queenstown, is stated to be very good, with easy approaches and little trouble from turbulence or fog. Any field, of course, may be expected to be affected to such an extent that flying is stopped on occasions—international air regulations do not demand the impossible with 100 per cent, perfect conditions stipulation. From Frankton two routes could be followed to Dunedin, depending on the weather. If the the route through the gorges to Cromwell was blocked, a direct run down the Kingston arm of Lajce Wakatipu, followed by a route across easy country, would be the alternative. In an emergency, there is a good field at Gore. Cromwell airfield is level with fair approaches, but other sites are available and would require comparatively little preparation. It is considered by pilots that the existing Alexandra field, slightly improved, could be used with safety by Dominies or Dragonflies—which would be the ideal aircraft for the Central Otago service—but there is already a strong move afoot in Alexandra to move the airfield site to the ■higher plateau which stands at the back of the present field. This was, of course, included in the 10-year plan announced by the Government. This would overcome the periodic river mist trouble to a large extent and would also make longer landing strips possible. Further Expansion Any sudT air service, it has been suggested, could equally well be expanded to include Gore and Oamaru, both to give residents of those towns access to Central Otago and to provide quicker communications with Dunedin for business and pleasure purposes. Meanwhile the existing company is planning to speed up its approaches to the Government departments concerned by amending its incidence of correspondence from a monthly to a weekly basis—even if, as one of its principals suggested, “we only have the pleasure of getting the replies sooner.”