Coral Route With Land Planes?

Land Planes?

Sale of Solents to UK Company

Npasman Empire Airways

early in December finalised the sale of all but two of the company’s Solent aircraft to Aquila Airways, Ltd., of Southampton, England. The Solents will be used on that com pany’s Lisbon - Madeira - Las Palmas service, one of the few remaining im

portant services employing flying

boats.

Two aircraft have been retained to continue operating the Fiji- Tahiti Coral Route Service.

There are persistent rumours, however, that TEAL will withdraw thse two Solents in 1955 and operate DC6’s through from Auckland to Bora Bora, where the local RAI service would connect with its Cata lina for the final stage to Papeete.

Apart from the obvious opera tional advantages to TEAL in using a single type of aircraft, Coral route “through” passengers would be saved the present connecting Nadi-Suva journey, and Rarotonga, administrative centre of the Cook Islands, might again find itself on an air route. Tahiti tourist passengers would also have a glimpse of Bora Bora, one of the most at tractive islands in French Oceania.

On the debit side, Suva would find itself without any sort of in ternational air service at all — Qantas proposes to withdraw its flying-boat services in 1955.

Sydney-Suva Service

INSPECTION and reconditioning work on aerodromes in New Cale donia (Tontouta,) and the New Hebrides (near Vila and Santo) to take land planes is continuing. But it is not expected now that these airfields will be ready before June.

When they are ready, the present sea-plane services conducted by Qantas between Sydney-New Cale donia-Suva will end, and Skymaster aircraft will be used on a service between Sydney - Tontouta - Vila- Santo, with a branch service each week between Tontouta and Nadi.

Under the new arrangement, Suva will lose its last international airline, and all air transport out of the Colony will then be through Nadi about 130 miles distant from the capital.

Tontouta airfield is about 20 miles out of Noumea, so that what travellers gain in the faster land planes they will lose in ground travel to and from airports.