Air Services For

Suva

Withdrawal of Flying-Boats Not Popular

From a Special Correspondent

Suva, May 4.

Tasman empire airways, on May 15, will carry a special party of VlP’s and pressmen from Nadi to Auckland, to mark the inaugural flight of its new service —under which the old direct flying boat service between Mechanics Bay, Auckland, and Lauthala Bay, Suva, will be discontinued, and a land plane service (from the Auckland airfield, 20 miles outside that city, to Nadi, 100 miles from Suva) will be substituted.

It is understood here that, fairly soon, Qantas will discontinue the Sydney-Noumea-S uv a flyingboat service and substitute therefor a land-plane service between Sydney and Nadi.

The Suva business people do not take kindly to the rearrangement.

Actual experience has shown that, when passengers, mails and urgent freight have to go around by Nadi, there is an average delay of at least 24 hours—and it is more than that, on occasions.

High officialdom responsible for this rearrangement argues that the gap between Nadi and Suva is effec tively taken care of by the Fiji Air ways service between Nadi and Nausori. In theory, this should be so—but, although the Fiji Airways planes appear to run regularly, it does not seem to work out in practice.

It is hoped that closer co-opera tion between the air companies, the Government and the business com munity will provide a better service via Nadi. If it does not, there cer tainly will arise an outcry for a direct connection between Suva and New Zealand and Australia, either through Nausori (the airfield 12 miles from Suva) or by restoration of the flying-boats.

Sydney-Noumea-Suva

Service

Considerable confusion has occurred in many of the rearrange ments of services in the South Pacific following the Rationalisation of Government air companies pub lished in another part of this issue, which show Solent service operating well into June. These timetables were received from TEAL early May There has been no suggestion that the Auckland-Tahiti, Auckland : W.

Samoa, and Suva-Nukualofa services are to be abandoned, and while these function, the Solents must continue to provide Suva with a

flying-boat service. .

What TEAL is doing, that is new, is to provide a land-plane feeder service Auckland-Nadi, to link with

Qantas’ new Sydney-Vancouver service. . ...

Qantas, in Sydney, reports that the flying-boat service Sydney- Noumea-Suva probably will be cut out in June. Noumea will still have a Qantas flying-boat service by the weekly Sydney-Noumea-New Hebrides Sandringham. (See further details page 51)