NO AIR SERVICE TO OAMARU

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29298, 1 September 1960, Page 18

NO AIR SERVICE TO OAMARU

Timaru Connexion Lost “The Press” Special Service OAMARU, August 30. Instead of gaining its much sought air services, Oamaru has lost public transport connexions with the services at Timaru because of a schedule amendment, and the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr Mathison) has declined to meet representations on an Oamaru service. Oamaru is notfr back to where it was at least seven years ago, with virtually no air service and no connexion to other services. From November 14 the Timaru-Dunedin-Invercargill service and return will be eliminated and a Christchurch-Timaru flight substituted to leave Harewood at 8.50 a.m. and Timaru for Christchurch at 0.50 a.m. From December 16. and until February 12, the plane will leave Christchurch at 7 a.m. and Timaru at 8 a.m., with a reporting time at Timaru of 7.20 a.m. This will mean that Oamaru passengers who made a connexion previously with the Timaru plane by travelling by bus from Oamaru will be without public transport to Timaru because there is no service early enough from Oamaru to allow a plane connexion. Mr Mathison has written the Mayor (Mr W. R. Laney) that the National Airways Corporation remained firmly of the opinion that the potential air traffic of the Oamaru district did not justify a service, even taking into account the increase in population and potential over recent years. “Statistics prepared for me by the Civil Aviation Administration unfortunately do not conflict with this view,” said Mr Mathison.