Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JAN, 29, 1938. EMPIRE AIR SERVICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, JAN, 29, 1938. EMPIRE AIR SERVICES.

The successful trial flight this week of the largest passenger airliner in Great Britain marks an important step forward in the development of the Empire’s aviation services. Ranking among the biggest machines of the kind in the world, an,d .designed to carry forty-two passengers, the huge monoplane is of interest, not only because of the engineering skill which it typifies, but for the advancement in policy indicated by its advent. Inevitable anomalies have arisen from the recent rapid expansion of the Empire air services for the carriage of first-class mail matter, the most striking being the fact that, while during the past year mails on these routes as a whole increased by 24 per cent., passenger traffic was almost 2 per cent, less than in the previous year. Mails necessarily required preference, and as their volume increased considerably fewer passengers could be carried. It is patent that the appearance of the first of several large monoplanes ordered by Imperial Airways is the answer to an urgent problem. It is an expanding service, with longer flights being undertaken by individual patrons —the average distance travelled last year by each passenger was 2120 miles as compared with 2025 the previous year. Between London and Karachi traffic increased by 16 per cent., the British company acquiring a larger proportion of the business offering than in the preceding period. The South African link from London to Johannesburg, also showed an improvement, but here again the increasing mail traffic curtailed expansion of passenger bookings. It is interesting to learn from information recently released that on the route between Singapore and Brisbane—which is operated by Qantas Empire Airways—there was last year an increase in business of nearly 85 per cent. Meanwhile New Zealand awaits the establishment of a regular trans-Tasman service to link up with the comprehensive Empirewide network. The recent visit of the Centaurus was an indication of the interest of the British authorities in the undertaking, and it is apparent that Governmental agreement rather than aeronautical difficulty is at the moment responsible for the continued hiatus. In his address at the annual meeting of Imperial Airways in London, in November, the chairman, Sir George Beliarrell, declared: “I can say this, that as far as we are concerned if instructions to proceed were

now given regular air services between this country and New Zealand would be in operation next summer”—about the middle of the present year. After recalling that the Dominion, Australian, and United Kingdom Governments were conferring on the question of extending to New Zealand the air mail service from England, Sir George expressed the hope that, before he again addressed the shareholders of the company, “the extension of the main line to New Zealand will be well on its way towards beingestablished, if it be not actually in operation.” The initiative displayed in developing the Empire service cannot be gainsaid; New Zealanders have recently had brought home to them the reality of the tradition it is creating and the thoroughness with which this newest bond is being forged. The present year promises to witness the consolidation of this progress, chiefly in the direction of accelerated services by new aircraft, both to Australia and South Africa. The Cambria and Caledonia, which are regarded as the fastest commercial flying-boats in the world, have established splendid records on the Atlantic route, and with the concentration of energies in increasing the capacity of the fleet to handle the traffic available in both hemispheres the operation of a complete chain \inder the British flag should pass from conjecture to reality. The inauguration of the Dominion’s link can, under the.circumstances, hardly be longer delayed.