AIR BOOKINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27504, 26 September 1950, Page 6

AIR BOOKINGS

Simpler System For Passengers OFFICE CHANGES NAME Prospective air passengers from .Dunedin in London, New York, Goose *Day, Shanghai, Karachi or any other "point on a major airline may now Jwalk into the National Airways booksing office and receive a ticket over :-the counter. .If r i n ß up to make the receptionist at the other Vena of the wire will say “Air Centre i* speaking.” For the office has not only enlarged its scope but has changed its name. This change of name indicates a new system of air travel booking for practically any point in the Dominion or overseas. Dunedin is one of 12 air centres which have been established in New ■Zealand and Fiji as part of a plan worked out by the International Air Travel Association. Its object is to co-ordinate the facilities of the world’s major airlines. The apparent complications of many airlines and travel agents issuing tickets valid on airlines throughout the world are resolved by ■ the establishment of a ticket clearing house at Montreal. > Within New Zealand and the South--West Pacific alone there are now 150 Offices which can supply information, tissue tickets round the world, and f ; provide confirmation the same day. SThis latter is possible because of a 'private teleprinter service. k F There are 78 travel agents in New "Zealand who carry lATA status. The majority also hold an agency for NAC Internal services and can accordingly ‘provide both international and dotnestic air travel facilities. In addition, there are 75 other agents who can ticket New Zealanders for air travel on the NAC internal air network.

A special function of the corporation’s staffs at its air centres is to maintain the closest liaison with agents, thereby ensuring that a comprehensive air travel service is handy to every New Zealander. The Air Centre system has accordingly developed a service that co-ordinates the activities of lATA travel agents, NAC agents, and NAC offices, and the 12 air centres of NAC in New Zealand and Fiji present an air travel service which equals , that of any other in the world.

‘Reservations may be made on the internal airways or on the 4000 miles of NAC external routes to Norfolk -Island, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. The air centres represent in the South-west Pacific the 7729-miles BCPA weekly express flight between the Dominion, the USA, and Canada; and the onward connection by Trans-Canada Airlines to London—the fastest of any route to Tickets and reservations for Trans-Tasman and Australian internal air travel are available, and air cargo for TEAL services to Australia, the East, and the United Kingdom, for BCPA to America, or for the New Zealand air cargo system, may be handed in—or collected—at the air centre.