Trans-Tasman

[?]DC6 Planes On The Trans-Tasman Service —“Soon”

ALTHOUGH no official announce ment has been made since the top-level conference on the *uture of TEAL. BCPA and QANTAS jver four months ago in New Zea and, it appears that Australia has maintained “constant discussions adth New Zealand” on reorganisa ;ion of these services. ■ During a recent agitation bv Rose Bay (Sydney) citizens for the re moval of the city’s flving-boat base tom what is a first-class residential fuburb, the Australian Minister for 3ivil Aviation said that as soon as jlans for reorganisation were com pete, DC6 planes, using Mascot, vould replace the flying-boats on he TEAL trans-Tasman service ‘by !tages.” At the same time Qantas vill take over BCPA trans-Pacific services, he said.

When this reorganisation took >lace, it would leave only a few lying-boats at Rose Bay for ser ies to Lord Howe Island, Noumea, itc. This would lessen the flying - K>at nuisance, as far as residents rf Rose Bay, Double Bay, etc., were :oncerned. , Residents of Rose Bay have been igitating for the removal of the >ase ever since it was established here “temporarily” about 20 years igo. A new flying-boat base was to )e established at Botany Bay near he Mascot airport, but now the Minister for Civil Aviation says that his would cost too much —about £1 million—and that flying-boats are >ecoming obsolete, anyway. (Although they are slow, some ections of the air-travelling public itill prefer them to land planes, [he Sandringham services from few Guinea to Sydney are very >opular in suite of the long time hey take to do the journey in com jarison with Skymasters).