[?] w Zealand Bears
p. 117 · Read in the full issue
All Coral-Route Loss
ICENTLY PIM noted that although the Australian and New Zealand Governments tly own TEAL there appeared >e doubt as to whether they tly shared all expenses of the il Route Service from Fiji to iti.
CAL confirms that the whole of that route is borne by New and, as the route is at present •ofitable and the service pro i for Samoa and the Cook ids is considered essential, esumably, the extension to ;ete helps to make the route of a loss than would be the if it were terminated at taki, or at Rarotonga with land es. But whatever saving the ti extension may provide, 3 is still plenty of loss, but j it was in the last financial on the Coral Route is far from clear. New Zealand ipapers in May quoted the ster of Civil Aviation as saying the Coral Route loss in the three months of the financial was £Stg.3o,ooo. No figure was i for the whole year. ie routes served by land planes ckland-Nadi, and the trans lan routes —showed a profit of 00 for only nine months, jmably the other three months ed a loss, because the overall t for the year was given as t £Stg.6o,ooo. 1 that basis it appears that New md made £Stg.3o,ooo—half to country—on the land plane ?s, and lost it all again, plus arently a lot more, on the 1 Route sector which is her nse alone. therefore appears that although Coral Route can be regarded Ttant strategically, from any • point of view it is an expensive ry to the New Zealand tax r, and the sooner land planes ice the flying boats, the better everyone’s pocket—distasteful ie idea may be for Suva and ete, which are without air 3. r Australia, TEAL has a much ; satisfactory aspect. From a of £5tg.168,250, half of which ralia stood, in the financial 1953-54, the situation changed profit of £Stg.3o,ooo for Aus a in 1954-55. •wever, if Coral Route finances be faulted, Coral Route mger safety records cannot.
L has just celebrated its 15th iday with a record free from »r accident. Since 1940, over 00 passengers have been safely ed over 14,353,153 miles of itional routes. About 5i million ds of mail and 5 million pounds argo have been carried, and total route mileage extended 1,342 miles to 9,487 miles.