Honolulu-Tahiti

Air-Service To Commence April, 1955

rHE Airline service between Honolulu and Tahiti, for which louth Pacific Airlines was formed iver two years ago, will commence

ext April.

This was announced by the Air ine’s President, S. Van Burkleo, in arly November. The American Civil icronautics Administration pro ing-flight will leave Honolulu i mid-March, followed by a press jght in late March. Thereafter a reekly round-trip will be made, rith a refuelling stop at Christmas sland.

The round-trip fare will be $550- 500 (£A246-£A26B) and 40 passen ers will be carried in the Solent IK.III aircraft. Flight time, [onolulu-Papeete, should be about 2 hours.

Two experienced pilots have been ngaged. One, L. B. Scott, is a jrmer Pan American Airways tipper; and the other, James J. oss, a former test pilot for CAA i Los Angeles.

Principal shareholder is R. tanley Dollar Jr., hotel and ship- Ing magnate. The airline will fly le Dollar house-flag.

A long and detailed examination I the first Solent is taking place dw in Honolulu and will continue >r some months more—but in late bvember the other Solent was ill lying at Rose Bay, Sydney.

These Solents formerly belonged i Trans-Oceanic Airways, which ent into liquidation about the time outh Pacific Airlines was formed, aptain Brian Monkton was one : the founders of TOA, and he, ith Mr. Frederick Barnes, launched Duth Pacific Airlines.

No mention of Capt. Monkton is ade in the latest release of SPA ans from Honolulu.

Some experienced airline men dieve that Solents cannot be pro bably utilised on the long hops in )lved in the SPA route —1,150 miles luth to Christmas and 1,250 miles om there to Papeete. TEAL »und them unsuitable for the ans-Tasman service. However, in lis case, with no competition, :onomic fares can be charged—the res quoted are over three times igher than similar trans-Tasman .res.

Other Projected Airlines

Though Samoa Airlines of Pago ago—with Honolulu capital—pre cted that it would be operating a inter-Samoa service and a ser ce through Rarotonga to Papeete ith Catalinas before the end 1954, there was no sign of early itivity late in November.

Earlier this year it was reported

from Noumea that an air service would shortly commence between points in New Caledonia and also to Lifu, Loyalties. An Avro-Anson air craft was purchased in Sydney, pre pared, and painted with the ’com pany’s colours. Attractive uniforms were delivered. Then the Anson was replaced by a Lockheed-Lodestar A large amount of work was carried out on this aircraft by a Sydney air craft firm—but the aircraft was still sitting in a Bankstown hangar late in November, Sir P. G. Taylor’s luxury charter flight 35-passenger Bermuda flying boat, after delays, arrived at Sydney late November on its delivery-flight with a party of RAAF servicemen aboard, returning from Malta. The

aircraft should be ready for Island charters and cruise flights by next April.