The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1954. Ohakea or Else

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27395, 7 July 1954, Page 11

The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1954. Ohakea or Else

From the confident prediction of the Mayor of Wellington (Mr H. L. Macalister) and the guarded comments of the chairman of directors of Tasman Empire Airways, Ltd. (Sir Leonard Isitt), it seems all too clear that T.E.A.L. is still der termined to gratify Wellington’s ambition to have its own exclusive trans-Tasman air service—however remote the terminal may be from the capital city, however much it may cost the Government in redundant international airport facilities, however seriously it may interfere with the work of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at its main operational station, and utterly regardless of the convenience of South Island air travellers. The South Island would have less reason to feel bitter about this if T.E.A.L., in the long years when South Island air travellers had to cross the Tasman via Auckland, had ever shown a semblance of such eagerness to provide the South Island with a separate service. “ The “ Press ” has expressed on many occasions its belief that the Harewood-Melbourne service was provided reluctantly by TJJA.L, and that the success of the service (in face of many self-imposed handicaps) was unwelcome to the

poliqy-makers of the company. There is a good deal of evidence that the prejudice against the South Island has survived the reorganisation of the company and the standardisation of its aircraft on all the Tasman routes. It is not long since official spokesmen were telling the South Island that New Zealand is too small a country to support more than one international airport —which is certainly true if the extra airports are to cost several millions of pounds. Yet with international airports established at Auckland and Christchurch, T.E.A.L. took upon itself apparently without any assurance on the point from the Government, which must supply and license airports—to promise a third at 'Wellington; and it was not only prepared to use Paraparaumu, which could not be other than substandard for planes of the type it uses, but went to considerable and improper lengths to secure the concurrence of the civil aviation authorities.

The latest evidence of this prejudice, provided by Sir Leonard Isitt himself, is conclusive. Thwarted in its wish to use Paraparaumu, and apparently unable to force an ' immediate entry into Ohakea, T.E.AX. had to begin its DC-6 ’ services with terminals at Auckland and Christchurch only. The frequent flights from Harewood served the convenience of the South Island j well They could, without any i doubt, serve travellers from the i lower half of the North Island ‘ almost equally well, and certainly very much better than less frequent , services from the remote Ohakea

airfield. T.E.A.L. must have known —for everyone else did—that the convenience of Harewood for Wellington travellers would depend entirely upon the adequacy of the feeder services between Wellington and Harewood. When Sir Leonard Isitt, in his joint capacity as chairman of T.E.A.L. and chairman of the National Airways Corporation, was asked what provision would be made to take Wellington travellers expeditiously to and from Harewood on the opening of the new services, he replied coldly that the present scheduled N.A.C. flights would have to serve. Their inadequacy and unsuitability are demonstrated by the experience of the Mayor of Wellington, who on his return from Australia on Saturday, had to wait two and a half hours for a plane to take hint l to Wellington. Such reasonable grounds for dissatisfaction are bounc

to nourish the extravagant and unreasonable demand in Wellington for a “ direct ” service through Ohakea.

Is T.E.A.L, interested in removing the causes of dissatisfaction and making the Harewood service thoroughly convenient for Wellington travellers? Not, apparently, until pressure or opinion in Wellington has compelled the Government to set aside the interests of the Air Force, to open Ohakea to TJS.A.L’s planes, and to build costly civil airport facilities there. For Sir Leonard Isitt insisted that consideration of feeder services must wait “ until the pattern of the “ Tasman services became plain ” in other words, until an expensive and illogical “ pattern ” of Tasman services has been shaped by the lack of feeder services. Sir Leonard Isitt offered an assurance that the South Island would lose none of its Harewood services provided a load factor of 64 per cent, could be maintained; but since the present Harewood schedule was drawn specifically to cater for a large number of North Island passengers, who would, if T.E.A.L had its way, be diverted to Ohakea, the assurance must rank as a masterpiece of irony. It is time the Government put a stop to this expensive nonsense. The Government is the final i authority on the provision of airports; and it should tell T.E.A.L. firmly that one international airport in each island is ample to serve the reasonable convenience of the people—especially when the alternative means heavy additional expense and serious embarrassment to military aviation, without any real advantage to air travellers as a whole. T.E-A.L. is trying to commit the Government to a precedent which may be disastrous in the future.