Is Doing Well
pp. 43-44 · Read in the full issue
N. Caledonia Air Service Is Doing Well
From Our Own Correspondent NOUMEA, October 31 NEW CALEDONIA’S internal air line Transpac, operating with a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, has got off to a good start. In the first two weeks, using one plane and one pilot, the line carried 120 paying passengers.
Most of these passengers have been carried between Noumea and the Loyalty Islands.
The plane also carries freight and mail. For the first time in history the outer islands have been able
to receive mail from France less than 48 hours after it arrived in Noumea. Formerly the mail took any thing from two to five weeks to arrive, being at the mercy of the irregular sea transport. Transpac is carrying fresh meat to the islands, an item that used to be rare outside the mainland of New Caledonia.
The outlook is so promising that the company plans to buy more planes, another Dragon Rapide and if possible, a Heron, if this latter machine can be procured, a service to the New Hebrides is proposed, with a stop-over at Lifou Island on the way over.
The company has called for more capital with this end in view.
The service is carried out strictly under control of the Civil Aviation
Dept. The air ground radio com m unication is handled by the organisation a t Tontouta aero drome. The Dragon Rapide uses the former USA fighter aero drome at Magenta beach, a couple of miles out of Noumea.
The company plans a trip to the Hebrides within
The de Havilland Dragon now in service by Transpac in New Caledonia.
the next few days. Calls will be made at both Vila and Santo carry ing mail. It is understood that no passengers will be carried.
Air-France Hands Over To
Private Company
The local Air France agency an nounces that from January 1, 1956, the bi-monthly Saigon-Noumea air service will be carried out by the “Compagnie des Transports Aeriens Internationaux” (TAD a private company. Air France will continue the service until the end of the present year. Negotiations for an extension of the service to New Zealand are still taking place.