AVIATION IN SOUTH AMERICA

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1929, Page 7

AVIATION IN SOUTH AMERICA

(London Commerce Journal.) By the end of 1929 it will be possible to travel by air from Montreal to Santiago, Chile, across the lower Andes to Buenos Aires, and to return via th,e Brazilian coast to New Yiork ’ and Montreal. There are air lines in every country of South America, and many of them are in daily use. This great improvement in the communication facilities of the American Continent has been made in the past eight years, before which period no commercial aircraft wore in operation, and already its influence upon the development of South American republics is apparent.

On that vast continent where the population is engaged chiefly in the production of raw materials, and where distances between large centres of population are so great, trade development is particularly dependent on the means of communication and transportation. Argentina has the most extensive railway system of any country south of the United States, and 'her rivers are navigaJble the year round. Tliis may have much to do with the fact that her foreign trade is over 60 per cent of the total commerce of the continent, and that among the nations of the world she ranks as thirteenth in per capita trade. Other South American countries have not the topography favourable to the building and maintaining of surface .transportation, the costly and difficult nature of which has been an important factor in their rapid advance in the field of aviation.

COLOMBIA AND PERU. • It is reported by the Royal *Bank ; of Canada, Montreal, that the greatest development in aerial ' transport in South America is found in Colonre. bia arid Peru, the rich, mountainous' countries of the north and west;* Colombia’s main artery of communication is the Magdalena River, whose shallowness has made the introduc-' tion of supplementary facilities essential. This need has given the country precedence in South American aviation, both in priority and in efficiency. As early as 1921, the “Scndta” was operating a weekly aerial service over the Magdalena as far inland as Girardot, some 800 miles from the Atlantic coast. Girnrdot' is connected by train with Bogota and the commercially important district surrounding that city. The company is now operating on a daily .schedule, and carries freight as well as mail and passengers. There is a branch line to the coffee-growing district of Bucaramanga in the east, one to the banana region of Santa Marta near the Atlantic coast, and a third serving a district 100 miles south of Bogota. For the traveller who wishes to reach the Pacific coast region from the Magdalena River Valley, there is the route from. Barranquilla at the mouth of the river, acro.ss the Andes to the Pacific rort Buenaventura. He may make several stops along the wav, and complete the journey in eight hours. The “Scadta” lines extend through Ecuador to Paita, in Peril; and their latest addition is the line to Cristobal in the Canal Zone, where it links with services fro ureas far north as New York and Montreal.

A peculiar need for the aeroplane is found in Peru, where the Andy’s separate the country into two distinct economic units. The foreign commerce of the western province flows through (ports on the Pacific coast, while the eastern provinces use Iquitos, on the headwaters of the Amazon, as their intrepot. A mail and passenger air service between Tqu.itos and San. Ramon, the head of rail and motor transport from Lima, is proving a means of stimulating communication between the West and the East, and furnishes the basis for development of a stronger national unity. The air transport companies operating along the coast and in the coastal valleys of Peru are filling a veal need. Co-operation between these lines and steamship companies ensures a much more efficient transport service than formerly, and mails are distributed with speed and regu'arity. BRAZILIAN DEVELOPMENTS. One of the conditions for successful operation of air lines is long distance between the districts to be served. Brazil fulfils this condition. Mic bas a coast line of over 3.000 miles, but with the execution of a network of railways serving the zone surrounding 'her erioital city, and another in the coffee State of Sao Paulo, the hundreds of miles between economically important districts had, before the establishment of air lines, only steamship connection. Another factor which has worked toward giving Brazil air transportation, is her proximity to Africa-. Natal, in the north of Brazil, is many hundred miles nearer the eastern world than is any other point in the western hemisphere. This encouraged the French company who have been operating between Toulouse and Noil.’ \ f r ica for several years, to extend their route by plane and steamship in 1928 to Natal, and thence southward along the coast to Buenos Aires, with stons at nine cities in Brazil and at Montevideo in Uruguay. Six countrios are thus brought into close touch with one another, and the trip

from Paris to Montevideo requires only eight days. The hydro-plane services operate only to the island of Fernando de Noronha on the Brazilian side, and to Capo Verde Islands on the eastern part of the route, but it is expected that the fast steamers which now complete the Atlantic crossing will hie replaced [by hydroplanes within a short time. Brazil has also Several internal services running on regular schedules.

OTHER. LINES O'F ACTIVITY. In addition to these longer, passenger routes in South America, there are local activities which may attract less attention, but play just as important a part in the development of the countries. Mining concerns m Argentina, Colombia, and British Guiana, and oil companies in Venezuela,- are using planes for transport over difficult areas-, surveying, dusting and photography from the air are activities well known on the continent; arid several countries have their aero clulbs and aviation schools. A notable service of the aeroplane to countries endeavouring •to settle boundary disputos is that of survey ing districts which could not have been mapped by any other means. EFFECT UPON TRADE. Perhaps the most important effect which aviation has had on trade development in South America is the quickening of outside interest in hi*r potentialities. Now that communication by air has been establish* 1 3 there, distances have been cut in half, and in many cases are only one-third of what they were in the past, with the result that the continent’s possibilities may be more quickly discovered and widely understood among those who have the capital necessary for its development. The mail ays tern has been transformed. Inland districts of Colombia and Peru need no longer wait weeks for mail, and Rio de Janiero and Buenos Aires \r< only seven or eight days distant fion New York and London. Trade con tacts may now he made in as many days' as it once took weeks, and the increased speed in the conduct of business cannot but react favourably on bqth internal arid external trade.