Always New Negotiations

Jet Age Begins in Pacific New Planes, New Routes And Always New Negotiations

• With the Pacific jet-age now less than six weeks away, great changes will he taking place in the Pacific in what remains of 1959.

Important route changes—and some entirely new ones—are also under discussion in high places.

FRENCH and Australian civil aviation officials are to meet in Paris shortly, probably July, to discuss reciprocal rights.

The initiative for these talks came from the French, who are still battling away trying to get landing rights for Transports Aeriens Intercontinentaux in Sydney—at present TAI has “rights” in Darwin and Brisbane only, on the way from Europe to New Caledonia. For years they have been trying to trade-in their Brisbane rights for others in Sydney.

In the normal course of events, as the French are doing the asking, the talks would take place in Aus tralia—but as there are to be general international airline dis cussions at The Hague shortly, it is convenient for the Australian and French authorities to make Paris the venue for the talks.

Opportunity will be taken, say Australian aviation authorities, to discuss matters other than TAl’s Sydney rights—but they will not say what.

Filling the Gap

It has been suggested that Aus tralia is interested in rights to fly from Fiji to New Guinea via New Caledonia and the Solomons, thus completing the Pacific gap.

At present Qantas has services to Honiara, BSIP, through Lae, Rabaul and Bougainville in New Guinea. It also runs a stop-gap, dead-end service with Skymasters once fortnightly from Sydney to Tontouta, New Caledonia. TAI operates services from Noumea to Vila and Santo, New Hebrides —but no one at all has closed that gap of less than 600 miles between Santo and Honiara.

One ship—Burns Philp’s Tulagi, in course of a round voyage from Sydney via Norfolk Is., Vila, Santo, Honiara, BSIP ports, Bougainville ports and back to Sydney, provides communication from Santo to Honiara —but there is no service, sea or air, in the reverse direction.

The ridiculous position, therefore, exists that if a traveller wants to go from Honiara to the New Hebrides, he has to make a com plete voyage, by sea or by air, back through New Guinea to Sydney and then start off again from there to the Hebrides.

Qantas surveyed the route that closes the Honiara-Santo gap early in 1958 and at the time it was hinted that an air service might begin by “August, 1958”.

Nothing has been heard of it since although the need is as great as ever. If this service were extended from New Caledonia to Fiji, it would be logical, as it would give Fiji direct connection with New Hebrides, Solomons and New Guinea, and through New Guinea (at Port Moresby) with Hongkong.

The important section, however, from the Pacific traveller’s point of view is the infuriating missing link between Santo and Honiara.

At present the dead-end Sydney- Tontouta service can be of no great importance to Qantas —except as a beginning to better arrangements in the future.

The biggest difficulty in the ] tension of the Lae-Honiara serr to New Caledonia will, of couu be the old one of aircraft j airstrips. The present Qam service is with DC3’s—and nothi larger would be possible on intermediate stops on the tok Rabaul and Buka.

Last year Henderson airflf Honiara, was brought up to n standard and put into service, few months later New Year stoi< almost destroyed the bridge © the Lunga River between Honi and Henderson Field, and t weekly Qantas service is now us Kukum airfield.

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The position, at the moment, is that the Super Constellation air craft which Qantas is using on its New Guinea service, and the

Electras that will go onto this service next year, cannot go further than Port Moresby because no other airports in the Territory are capable of taking larger than a DC4—and few other than Lae are capable of taking planes of even that size.

The old DC3 work-horses are nearing the end of their useful lives but what will take their place in New Guinea has been exercising the minds of the experts for some time. Fokker Friendships would probably be ideal for a number of the longer Territory routes, includ ing a Lae-Honiara-New Hebrides- New Caledonia service, but would be unsuitable for others, such as the long “milk-run” services into the Highlands and around the group.

Competition for Qantas

Changes are shortly expected in internal New Guinea services and the service from Australia. When the Director of Civil Aviation visited the Terrtory in January one of the things he investigated was the need, or otherwise, for a competitor for Qantas on the Sydney-NG service.

An announcement was then ex pected within a few weeks. Now it is May, and some aviation circles consider a decision imminent— granting Ansett-ANA rights to fly to New Guinea from Australia in competition with Qantas. (Other experts think the Dept, of Civil Aviation will just say nothing, hoping everyone will forget the whole thing).

Ansetts were attempting to get these rights, and were refused, even before they swallowed up ANA in 1957.

It is considered likely, however, that part of the deal will be an insistence that Ansett will have to take over some of the internal P-NG services.

To do this they will presumably have to buy into an existing air line, as present traffic will not support an additional line.

New Air Connection

For Tonga?

A Fiji Airways spokesman said at the end of April that it was possible that a fairly regular but non scheduled air link would be re established with Tonga as the result of talks held in Nukualofa late in April when one of the company’s Heron aircraft made a flight there from Nausori.

It was believed that a loading for a Heron would be available every two or three weeks.

Tonga has had no air connection since the Tonga Government decided to discontinue the special charter-flights made by the TEAL Solent flying-boat up to 1957.

The late April flight to Fua’amotu

airport, Tongatapu, included Mn Ritchie, manager of Fiji Airw:\ and a full load of passengers—S* businessmen, three BBC televisii camera men, and a Tongan fain returning home. The aircraft 1 piloted by Captain Gordon Yorl'