Faring?

Transocean

Starts Something

And How Are The Airlines

Faring?

Most people in Fiji, or else

where, are apparently unaware

lat at present it is theoreti

ally possible to visit Ameri an Samoa on a flight to Hono ilu or on a flight from, say, ydney to the United States —- : a saving of more than $lOO

i the direct Nadi-Honolulu

>urist class fare.

THIS situation has come about . through Transocean Airlines of Honolulu establishing a “non heduled” Honolulu-Pago Pago urist class service with Boeing rcraft in recent months. Trans- Ban has been doing a roaring busi ss. The service opened on a Dnthly basis, then became fort ?htly and in May there was a dting list of over 100 passengers Pago Pago. rransocean’s service could have curious effect on Pan American rways’ Nadi - Pago Pago fort ?htly service. rhis was established several years 0 to provide an air connection American Samoan residents ;h Honolulu and the US. A lot those residents are now in ating that they are prepared to :ept tourist class conditions, save le, forego a look at Fiji, and ;ket the change by taking the ect Transocean flight. 7o date, people in Fiji and south rd have not realised the situ- Dn, but it could be that Pan lerican might find itself acting a feeder service for Transocean her than for its own trans ;ific main-line service. Conversely could be said that Transocean fht develop into a feeder service Pan American’s shuttle service, ecially if Transocean clears the jo Pago bottle-neck by operating skly flights, as a Suva report says Id happen soon.

Some Pitfalls 'owever, while there may be a stantial saving by passengers welling between Fiji and Hono -1 via Samoa, there are some pit s which intending passengers uld be aware of.

is involved, and that certainl? is possible if either carrier fa?l s to operate on the day promised due to weather or other causes—the cost of accommodation at Pago Pago fn U f^rA ea m^ a Ti} y the saving of f Q f’ 3£en there is the question Sarnnn permit for American d t £ ese are not handed ° U Th°p I J ; p d t l S? n l' kt

alii Sh fhS, Problems associ-

IpySJSS through-bookings.

bcheduled airlines cannot, under existing agreements, arrange through-bookmgs where a nonscheduled operator is included in part of the passenger’s proposed „ Most traffic from Fiji or southward would be bound for destinations beyond Hawaii, where through-

nnectine servlces SS ■^ on , ol^ lu r 9 ute should be ahead Watchmg m the months c • , .. ..

experienced Airline

Transocean, though an ‘irregular” operator, is no fly-by-night concern.

It provides passenger services throughout the US Trust Territory ? f the Pacific Islands. It was formed by a group of civilian pilots for the Air Transport Command who hap pened to find themselves on Wake Island at the end of World War II and decided to exploit opportunities they foresaw.

The company has wide Pacific experience, having provided crews for Philippine Air Lines and Japan Air Lines when those firms started It has also provided American

ight crew for Lufthansa, Air ordan, Pakistan Airlines, the enezuelan and Iranian airlines.

A San Francisco report says the ire saving is even greater on the ew route for anybody wanting to y from Honolulu to Pago Pago.

Previously, passengers have had ) fly from Honolulu to Nadi via PA, PAA or Qantas, then await le TEAL service to West Samoa ’ the fortnightly PAA service to merican Samoa.

The fare was $352 one-way, first ass, compared with the new direct •ute fare of $149 for tourist class, his is the only fare schedule fered, although the 65 passenger rcraft being used have both tourist id first class accommodation.

Short of Aircraft?

The Transocean company has sen using Boeing Stratocruisers squired from BOAC, but it is not 0 sure if it will be able to produce weekly or fortnightly service when e Pacific and Atlantic tourist rush ally starts.

A Transocean official said in San •ancisco last month, “We’ve got 10 ratocruisers, but only six have so r completed certification by the ideral Aviation Agency. We’ve got enty of business for those planes 1 our Atlantic runs and our US iwaii-Far East runs for the mmer. We will certainly maintain Dnthly services, but fortnightly ns to Samoa will depend on avail ility of aircraft.”

Meanwhile, there has been little ogress towards establishment of her South Pacific air routes.

Hawaiian Airlines, which pro vides inter-island services with Con vans and DC3’s, and which has sought permission to serve the US West Coast, Hawaii, Tahiti and/or other South Pacific territories, is still waiting, and is likely to be for another 18 months yet. This is the length of time expected to be taken by the US Civil Aeronautics Board in reaching a decision on air services involving the whole of the Pacific.

The Board has already started hearings, but a lot of airlines and would-be air services are involved, and routes touching all parts of the Pacific, north and south, will be discussed. The US Government has initiated the inquiry. It apparently

wants to find out just which of its airlines can do what, so that it can be ready when foreign carriers start to bargain for landing rights on American territory in exchange for others in the Pacific.

New Routes Hawaiian Airlines’ application in volves a number of routes.

The South Pacific ones would operate from Los Angeles and Honolulu, and take in Tahiti, and possibly include American Samoa, Fiji, Noumea, Auckland and Sydney.

It is doubtful if the airline would have any luck in getting as far as Auckland and Sydney, but it would probably be happy enough with the Tahiti route. (Over)

What's the big flap about," six-months' old [?]raura Tinirau of Aitutaki, Cook Islands, must [?]e asking the cameraman who snapped her in [?]e arms of TEAL hostess Joan Mitchell after [?]oth had alighted from the TEAL flying-boat at [?]aucala Bay, Suva. With her parents, Uraura was on her way to New Zealand.

Photo: Stinsons.

lawaii plans, at this distance, yway, to use jets on the South cific routes. jast year Hawaiian Airlines was peful of running a direct Hono ii-Tahiti service, using a permit it had been granted to South :ific Air Lines, which had no table aircraft. There was talk of merger, but that arrangement v appears to have fallen through, ith Pacific doesn’t have the nch part of the permit any more, y the American part, which is iut as good as having a plane hout wings. South Pacific’s three ents, bought in the UK and Aus ,ia, are meanwhile wasting away the Oakland and San Francisco ports. outh Pacific, owned by the lar steamship interests, was to e access to a Super Constellation led by another Dollar firm, but ; apparently has fallen through, nother American firm which ears to be making no headway the air is Samoan Airlines, of o Pago.

Airline, But No Route he company has had a DC3 er charter since January at a re reported to be in the vicinity $2,000 a month, but it hasn’t •ied any fare-paying passengers veen East and West Samoa yet.

DC3 is still sitting at Tafuna. !any airline interests are in ued as to why anybody would it to charter an aircraft and set in the airline business without ; confirming the route he was

going to fly, but that apparently is what has happened.

Lots of people would be pleased

if one day soon Samoan Airlines really does begin flying the much needed Pago-Apia service. At the same time, they won’t be surprised, either, if that chartered DC3 goes back to Honolulu without having gone into business.

Fiji Airways

Fiji Airways’ aircraft were grounded at Nausori for a period m May through flooding. Shortly afterwards the Fiji PWD commenced to strip off a thick layer of mulch that has for years been accumulat ing on top of the steel matting— which has been inches below the surface. Stripping is unlikely to be a cure-all for this airfield, but it might help under moderately wet conditions, assisting in the drying of the strip.

Fiji Airways seemed to turn thumbs down on a suggestion that an amphibious aircraft could be the answer to the Suva-Nadi problem at times when Nausori airfield is “out”. An amphibious aircraft, they

While Fiji Airways aircraft sat bogged down at Naosori Airfield during Suva's wet weather in mid-May, Air Viti's amphibian, barred from stepping into the breech on the Suva-Nadi main service, was busy operating from the pontoon outside the Harbour Master's office to other points in the Fiji Group.

(Continued from previous page) indicated, could not be a profitabli proposition.

Whether it was or not, the: showed no disposition towards let ting Air Viti demonstrate that thu public interest could be served b, supplying some charter work fot their amphibious Cessna during thj Nausori wash-out in May.

Throughout the bad weather, Aii Viti continued to operate its nom scheduled flights to nearby islands Fiji Airways let it be knowis however, that they were discussing the possibility of bringing in a dil Havilland Beaver of the wheelei; type. They can be fitted with floats or floats and wheels to providf amphibious operations. They ait capable of operating on very shoijj airstrips with a full load of sever passengers, and this one would b used to provide connection witit small airstrips—in existence or tr be built —throughout Fiji.

Its arrival, if decided upon, woulji apparently not ease the Nauso* problem, as this wheeled versiot< would still have to use that airstrifi which is Suva’s only land airport

toria Cross and a commission in field; the less conspicuous Cox the Distinguished Conduct ial. ion after that, in the Somme le, Cox crawled out into No i’s Land and carried in some nded comrades. He somehow ped enemy fire, and was awarded Military Medal. ix got mixed up with more it-iine stuff at Hill 60 and sines, and collected a lungful of a Mention in Despatches, and scharge. 3 was a roadmaster in New lea when the Pacific section of Id War II started; and, of se, an experienced Sergeant ir and native-labour director id many ways of being useful. r 1944, John was in the North leo-Sarawak area, with FELO, he spent some time in behind Jap lines there, training Dyaks Borneo Malays in a special ation.

Headhunters tese Dykas are natural head ers; and when they found that long, thin Munsterman would them £3 for each Jap head de ed, business really flourished. i’s supply of sovereigns ran out, he had to reduce the rate to >er head; but still the heads 5 in, ry few people—not even John’s ades—knew of what was going and everyone looked innocent i Japanese HQ furiously de ced this “barbarous” method of ng war. John, meantime, was n the back country, in charge vo 38-ft, twin-engined motor 1, with which they hunted Jap iport canoes up and down the

Baram River—hiding by day and operating at night. y iofc St T u fter the Jap surrender, in 1946, John was sent by Commander (Black Jack) Proud, of FELO, with a US Task Force to observe the surrender of a truculent Jap garri son of 3,000, on Sell Baba Island, 90 miles north of Moratai.

The Americans took along some Nisei Japanese to inform the infamous Colonel Koba that Japan had surrendered and that the Em- Perpr had ordered a cease-fire. Koba could not understand the Niseis, and prepared for battle. Cox then went forward and, in his best Hakadote dialect, helped by local Malay, he persuaded the Japs that the war really was over. The Americans, in gratitude, gave John the Colonel’s sword.

Colonel Koda was later hung for

atrocities committed upon English and Australian soldiers, and for his extremely brutal treatment of Jav anese.

From this war, John collected two more decorations.

John Cox now has the usual lot pt campaign ribbons, plus the fol mwmg special decorations: Dis tinguished Conduct Medal; Croix ?f-,? uerre (French); Mons Star; Military Medal; Bar to Military Medal; Mentioned in Despatches.

Under a new water-saving law in Rarotonga, the occupier of a property and not the actual servant responsible, will be liable to penalty for wastage of water through any tap being left running on that pro perty.

John Cox.