[?]Ew Hebrides Again Without Air Services

Residents of the New Hebrides still await an international dr-service. Operations of the Transpac service have now been ;uspended, and airmails from Australia to NH have been cancelled.

ELA and Santo, NH, have been without air-services to the out side world since Qantas flying ts were withdrawn in mid-1955. that time Qantas changed over land planes and has since been ting until the airfields near i and Santo wwe brought up to standard required by the tartment of Civil Aviation, atest reports indicate that hing has been done on the air ps. i the meantime, a local air dee, Transpac, has been eloped in New Caledonia and company announced a couple of

months ago that it would run a fortnightly service to the Hebrides with its Ds Havilland Rapide aircraft. On the assumption that this service would continue, the Australia-New Hebrides air-mail was resumed.

No announcement has been made by Transpac, but private advice from New Caledonia is to the effect that Transpac has ceased running this service.

Local opinion is that “the big companies” have brought pressure to bear on the small company.

Big Companies presumably mean Transports Aeri e n s Intercon tinentaux, successors to Air France on the P'aris-Noumea service, and Qantas. But how either of these companies are to land their large planes on , the disputed New Hebrides airfields without Civil Avia tion permission Local Opinion, of course, omits to say. There seems no reason why Transpac should not run an interim service anyhow.

Recently, the French Inspector

General of Airfields was in the Hebrides looking over the disputed air-strips. Perhaps this indicates that something will be moving shortly, but so far the most interested parties—the residents of the Hebrides —do not know what.

It is known that TAI is anxious to start a service and had tentatively proposed a DC3 service from an air-strip at Magenta (near Noumea) to Santo and Vila to commence “early 1956.”

Now it appears that Magenta is out —the French Inspector General has condemned it for the proposed service. Magenta, at a Noumea seaside resort, was built by the Americans as a fighter strip during the war. It is used by Transpac and by the local aero club.

Large planes must use Tontouta, about 50 miles from Noumea. This will soon be in a condition to take the DCT planes with which TAI hopes in 1957 to replace its present DC6B aircraft. t Passengers per Tahitien, in Feb uary, for Santo, in the New Hebrides, were Mr. Brian Kidney and his bride, nee Miss Harding, of Brooklyn, Condobolin. Mr. Kidney has a three-year appointment at Santo.