EMPIRE AIR MAIL

Southland Times, Issue 23074, 16 December 1936, Page 6

EMPIRE AIR MAIL

REPEATED DELAYS CONCERN IN SINGAPORE Singapore, November 26. It is unlikely that Imperial Airways’ new flying-boats will operate a full London-Singapore service until 1938. That will mean still further delay in the extension of the flying-boat scheme to Australia and, possibly New Zealand. Further delays in the construction of the giant flying-boats and organizational difficulties have frustrated Singapore’s hopes that the new schedules would be adopted next year. Present indications are that the Far East service will be maintained for the next 12 months by the present machines, and there will be no speedup in the present “nine-day” service. Actually, of course, the present schedule is rarely maintained; the machines are nearly always a day late in arriving at Singapore. In contrast, the Dutch mail five-day service between Singapore and Amsterdam is maintained efficiently and regularly, Its eastern terminus is Batavia, Java. The service will be speeded-up to four days not later than next June, when the new Douglas ‘flying sleepers” will be introduced. The new machines are exact replicas of those at present in use, but will be larger in every respect. They will each carry 21 passengers and 40 cubic feet of mail, at a cruising speed of 200 miles an hour. Considerable disappointment is felt in Singapore that Sir Eric Geddes, in his address to the recent annual meeting of Imperial Airways, made no detailed reply to reports that a serious hitch has occurred in the whole Empire air mail scheme. Slower Construction Because of the pressure of Air Ministry orders it is predicted that the new Empire flying-boats will not be completed at the rate of more than one a month, instead of one a fortnight, as announced when work on the fleet of 28 flying-boats was begun. Two of the new aircraft have already been employed on the Mediterranean section, where delays have been most frequent, and others will be placed on the London-Cape Town route as they leave the factory. At the present rate of production and with the demands imposed by the trans-Atlantic experimental flights, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand cannot expect to rhare in any immediate speed-up in Empire air communications. In Sir Eric Geddes’ address it was stated that the performance of the new flying-boats had exceeded expectations and in the full-speed trial had recorded 199£ miles an hour. It seems probable, however, that the new boats will only be able to carry the pay-load originally stipulated if they travel at a slower speed than that. The four-day London-Singapore service anticipated by the Under-Secretary for Air in the House of Commons as far back as December 1934, will not be inauguiated by a British company until night-flying difficulties have been overcome. As soon as the new flying-boats enter the African service, some of the machines of that service will be released to supplement the London-Singa-pore service. Today the shortage of aircraft on the Far East route is becoming serious. Difficulties of Staff Widespread sympathy has been extended to the pilots, mechanics and organizational officials of Imperial Airways, in view of the difficulties they have had to surmount in the last few months—attributed by the company to the “change-over” from land machines to flying-boats. Imperial Airways has pointed out that the essentials for a successful air service are safety and economy. A relatively slow schedule is necessary, it has been stated, if an economy service is to be maintained. Those who have accepted this argument will be disappointed that no real information is contained in Imperial Airways’ annual report, as to the allocation of the subsidies provided to the company, which is a victual monopoly. In Australia, where much criticism has been levelled against Imperial Airways for its failure to establish punctual connections in Singapore with Qantas Airways, an unofficial estimate of the subsidies received by the company was made as follows:— £ London-Singapore route 105,000 European routes 65.000 London-Cape Town Not divulged The total subsidy, with the addition of other assistance for establishing fly-ing-boat bases and carrjing out transAtlantic experiments, is set down at more than £300,000, irrespective of the London-Cape Town service Increase in Dividend The Dutch company which operates the Amsterdam-Batavia and other

routes—Royal Dutch Air Lines—is believed to have received only an average of £55,000 over the past five years. Although these figures cannot be authenticated in the absence of detailed information from the companies concerned, it is noteworthy that a recent League of Nations report stated that Royal Dutch Air Lines had reached a point which is 76 per cent, independent of subsidy and Imperial Airways only 61 per cent. (Hie last annual report showed that Imperial Airways had raised its dividend from 6 per cent, to 7 per cent., in spite of its failure to provide adequate replacements for obsolete and wrecked machines.