SUVA AIR BASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24417, 1 October 1940, Page 8

SUVA AIR BASE

There is a possibility that the flyingboat base now being constructed near Suva harbour, in Fiji, will be used by the Pan-American Airways Clippers in their San Francisco-Auckland service. By invitation from the British authorities. says the aviation correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, PanAmerican Airways will make Suva a regular stop between Canton Island and New Caledonia, and the Fijian Government will construct a flyingboat base at a waterway adjacent to Suva harbour, suitable for both an Empire service and Boeing Clippers. Inquiries made in Wellington, however, suggest that the arrangements are not as definite as would appear from the statement in the Sydney Morning Herald. The position seems to be that Pan-American Airways have been invited by the British Government to make use of the Suva base and will in all probability do so. The Sydney Morning Herald also states that Mr H. Gatty, Pan-American Airways representative. and Captain J. W. Burgess, flight superintendent of Tasman Empire Airways, recently visited Suva together to confer with the Fiji authorities on matters connected with the construction of the base.