NEW AIR LINK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19885, 11 March 1939, Page 4

NEW AIR LINK

AUCKLAND-GISBORNE

TRI-WEEKLY SERVICE

TRAFFIC -BUILDING PLAN

DAILY SCHEDULE LATER

Commencing on Monday, March 20, Union Airways, Limited, Will conduct a tri-weekly service between Gisborne and Auckland, initiating what it is hoped will become, after a few weeks, a daily service between the Queen City and the leading provincial town on the East Coast.

The first scheduled trip will be made by one of the De HaviUand 80 machines, which pioneered the Auckland-Dunedin service, on March 20 from Auckland. Thereafter, until traffic reaches a volume sufficient to justify the operation of a daily service, planes will leave Auckland for Gisborne, via Tauranga and Opotiki,' on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and departures from Gisborne will be made on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Initial Timetable

Service considerations and the convenience „of passengers have been consulted' in the "compilation' of the schedule for this tri-weekly service, which has been fixed as follows: — Leave Auckland 8.10 a.m.; arrive Tauranga 9 a.m. Leave Tauranga 9.10 a.m.; arrive Opotiki 9.50. a.m. Leave Opotiki 10 a.m., arrive Gisborne 10.40 a.m. Leave Gisborne 7.30 a.m.; arrive Opotiki 8.10 a.m. Leave Opbtiki 8.20 a.m.: arrive Tauranga 9 a.m. Leave Tauranga 9.10 a.m., arrive Auckland 10 a.m.

The faxes fixed by the company include a Gisborne-Auckland fare of £4. From Gisborne to Opotiki the fare will be 27s 6d, and from Opotiki to Tauranga a similar charge will be involved. The GisborneTauranga fare will be £2 15s.

At each aerodrome the company will tender the same surface-trans-port facilities as are available On the longer-established runs, including free carriage of passengers between the depots and the aerodromes. At Tauranga a short launch trip will be included in the service to passengers. Time in Auckland The Auckland aerodrome is an hour's run from the city, and this fact has been given due weight in framing the schedule for north-bound flights. If a later start from Gisborne had been decided on, the time available for passengers reaching Auckland would have been cut down correspondingly, and it is the experience of Union Airways that the early start is preferable from the passengers' point of view. When traffic justifies the commencement of a daily two-way service between Gisborne and Auckland, the schedule announced in January will be adhered to, with the exception that the trips from Gisborne will start earlier in the winter months. The original schedule drawn up for daily service provided for a 3.30 p.m. start from Gisborne, but during the winter this will be amended, and the. north-bound plane will probably set out at 1 p.m. or 1.30 p.m. daily.