EMPIRE AIRWAYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1938, Page 8

EMPIRE AIRWAYS

DISCUSSION OF TASMAN LINK MR A. E. RUDDER ARRIVES. LONDON-SYDNEY SERVICE DEVELOPMENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. An acceleration of arrangements for the initiation of a trans-Tasman air service may result from the visit to New Zealand of Mr A. E. Rudder, Australian representative of Imperial Airways, who arrived by the Aorangi from Sydney today. It is likely that he will have conversations with representatives of the Government. . Mr Rudder declined to say anything concerning the proposed trans-Tasman line, but announced that the Empire service from London to Sydney, to be operated by flying boats, was expected to commence before the end of July. The boats would not follow the present plane service route from Darwin to Brisbane, but would take the coastal line from the Gulf of Carpentaria. A feature of the service would be that passengers would not have to transfer from one flying boat to another, as each boat would complete the full journey from London to Sydney and vice versa. Three services weekly would be carried out, occupying ten days each way, and later, when base

equipment had been completed, night flying would cut the journey down to seven days.