N.A.C. BEGINS TIMARU AIR SERVICE TODAY

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28260, 24 April 1957, Page 7

N.A.C. BEGINS TIMARU AIR SERVICE TODAY

A scheduled DC-3 passenger airline service to Timaru will be opened by the National Airways Corporation today for flights to and from Christchurch. Next month the corporation will extend the six days a week service to link up with its main trunk operations connecting other centres in the South Island and beyond. To launch the service the corporation will fly one return flight to Timaru up to and including May 25. Aircraft will leave Harewood at 12.10 p.m. each day except Sunday and arrive in Timaru after a flight of 40 minutes. The fare is £2. The aircraft will leave Timaru on its return flight at 1.5 p.m.

On May 27 Timaru will be linked with South Island main trunk airline operations. An aircraft will leave Dunedin at 9.10 a.m. on week-days and Saturdays, calling at Timaru at 9.25 a.m. and reaching Harewood at 10.10 a.m. It will return south at 2.20 p.m. arriving at Timaru at 3.5 p.m. and continuing on to Dunedin. The extended schedule will continue until August 22 when Invercargill will be brought into the

route which incudes Timaru. Airliners will fly south from Christchurch and stay overnight at Invercargill before returning the next day. The Christchurch branch manager of the corporation (Mr J. E. Davies) said yesterday that DC-3 freighter planes would operate through Timaru as business offered. The basic freight rate between Christchurch and Timaru has been fixed at ’3d per lb, with a 25 per cent, reduction on the rate for goods consigned “freight cargo.”