UK and Dominion Governments Will

ANA WILL BE OUT OF TRANS PACIFIC

Service Next April

UK and Dominion Governments Will Then Run Own Organisation

BRITISH Commonwealth Pacific Air lines will take over the Sydney- North America, and Auckland-North America air service next April.

At present this service is being run by Australian National Airways Pty., Ltd., under contract with BCPA. Their con tract ends in April and will not be re newed.

BCPA was registered under the NSW Companies Act last year, but so far. has been kept as a shadow organisation, with a registered office and a secretary, but no staff. Nominal capital was £1,000,000 and stock is held by the Australian gov ernment (50 per cent.); New Zealand (30 per cent.), and United Kingdom (20 per cent.). Mr. A. W. Coles, who is also chief executive officer of the Australian Government’s internal air company, Trans Australian Airways, is chairman of BCPA.

It has been stated that BCPA expect no difficulty in taking over from ANA.

ANA has recently been permitted to pur chase two new Skymasters for the trans pacific service and it is understood that these can be acquired by BCPA at will.

TAA will have its new Convairs in opera tion by next April and then presumably also will pass over its Skymasters for the trans-Pacific service.

Simultaneously with the announcement that BCPA would take over, Captain A.

A. Barlow, who has been largely con cerned with the flight operations of ANA’s trans-Pacific run, resigned from that company and joined BCPA as manager of the new organisation.

THE new development is in keeping with 6 the intention of the Socialist governments of Australia, New Zea land and United Kingdom to control all airways.

Australia now controls Qantas Empire Airways and the trans-Pacific service,

New Zealand controls Tasman Empire Airways, its internal airways and some South Pacific services; and the United Kingdom controls BOAC and allied services.

Trans Australia Airways which was the Australian Government’s answer to a High Court decision against the national isation of internal airways—received a foundation grant of £3,000,000 from Aus tralian public funds and has subsequently received every aid, financial and political, that it is possible for the Government to put its way. It is the expressed intention of the Government to push private air companies from the skyways, if possible.

Latest broadside in this campaign is the introduction, at the end of July, of a Government levy on all planes using aerodrome facilities in Australia.

Trans-Australia Airlines completes its first year in October, but so far there has been no statement as to its financial position, although pertinent questions have been asked, both in and out of Parliament, and there is some uneasiness that taxpayers’ money is being used to finance this effort to break private air line enterprise.

AUSTRALIAN National Airways Pty., Ltd,, has had a long and excellent record in Australian aviation. It was due to this company’s enterprise and organisation that BCPA was able to in augurate the service last year the shadow company, at that time, had neither the machines nor the ground or ganisation for such an undertaking.

It is unlikely, however, that the man aging director of ANA (Captain Ivan Holyman) was unaware that, once the pioneering period had passed, the ser vice would be run by BCPA on its own account. But apart from surmounting the problems associated with every pioneer venture, ANA may yet have come out best in the trans-Pacific service: the problems of that service are likely to increase rather than diminish.

Pan American Airways run a parallel trans-Pacific service, twice weekly be tween Sydney and North America, in comparison with BCPA’s single service; and once weekly from Auckland, in comparison with BCPA service once a fortnight. There must, however, be a limit to the number of passengers who are prepared to pay over £2OO to cross the Pacific, and once the post-war boom seriously begins to wane and trans-Pacific shipping is restored to something ap proaching its former frequency, the main tenance of any trans-Pacific air service might well become a headache for its operators.