AIR FREIGHT SERVICES

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 January 1948, Page 5

AIR FREIGHT SERVICES

DUNEDIN TO N. ISLAND ' SIR LEONARD ISITT HOPEFUL, BUT NOT OPTIMISTIC (P.A.) Invercargill, Jan. 29. In about two or three months the National Airways Corporation intends to start an air freight service from Dunedin to the main centres in the north. - This information was given by Sir Leonard Isitt, chairman of the corporation, today. In reply to a question about carrying fruit and oysters by air. Sir Leonard said these were seasonal products, but special arrangements could be made to transport them by air if there were demands for it. Dealing with the general question of carrying goods by air, Sir Leonard said mails and small parcels were at present carried in passenger planes, but though the charges were not unreasonable this service was operating to only 65 per cent, of its capacity. There was also an air freight service operated by the Railways Department between Paraparsumu and Blenheim. He said the cost of transport on the air freight service which the corporation intended to operate from Dunedin North would be about 2s 6d a ton, mile. That was not cheap, but it was impossible for the corporation to operate any service at less than cost.

“Some people seem to think this new service will be a gold mine, but I am not optimistic,” Sir Leonard added. “I hope the various. Chambers of Commerce that have assured us freight is there, are correct. I think aircraft will definitely carry certain types of goods, but air trans, port is not an alternative to ground transport. This has been provejl in Canada, where they have been operating air services for a long time. In that country freight services run to the North-west Provinces, but they cannot compete with ground transport for business between such places as Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. “I have been told that if we carried racehorses by air lines the planes with racehorses would never be out of the air. but the fact remains that to date only three racehorses have been carried by air between the Continent and Britain. However, New Zealand lias often led the rest of the world and she .may do so here.”

Sir Leonard pointed out that aircraft could not hope to compete in the carriage of many classes of goods against the railways, which in some cases charged only a fraction of a penny a ton per mile.