Troubles Will Be

N. Guinea Airline Troubles Will Be Worse Yet

By a Staff Reporter

Territorians were convinced in April that the air transport situ ation in Papua-New Guinea will get worse before it is better. The Australian Department of Civil Aviation had, a month earlier, announced restrictions on the take-off weights of DCS aircraft and it was anticipated that othei “reforms” would also be intro : duced, THE fact that one of the two bij airlines was introducing a ba service on some internal flights, am the other was introducing Chinesi air-hostesses (as a local paper pu it, you could take your choice be tween grog and sex), wasn’t divertinj any minds from freighting troubles.

Improved passenger comfort i overdue in the Territory, but it is minor consideration compared witl the fact that some districts, such a Eastern, Western and Southern High lands, depend entirely on air tram port, and that the whole economy c the Territory is affected in some d« gree by it.

Rightly or wrongly, the Australia Pilots’ Association is being parti blamed for the new conditions. Terr torians are quick to point out tin there was none of this trouble whe Qantas was the big operator in th Territory; that Qantas pilots r< garded their tour of duty in th Territory as training for internatiom service, and thus were prepared t fly how, when and as required.

More Danger, More Money

Some of the people who are usir that argument helped oust QantJ from the Territory, nonetheless thei is something in what they say.

To the present pilots in the Ten tory, P-NG is only an extension i Australia and they probably see r reason why their flying conditioi should be different.

Mr. lan Downs took this argume: a bit further in the P-NG Legislate Council in April when he said th the pioneering days were over ai that NG could no longer depend c air transport for development no

ien there were “ordinary men” in ; cockpits.

It’s doubtful whether the pilots will ce any more kindly to being de ibed as “ordinary men” than they i to the suggestion allegedly made Mr. Downs previously that, as ing in P-NG was regarded as more ngerous, the trouble might be got er by paying pilots “danger >ney”.

Mr. Downs said that the pilots’ )ly to this in the newspapers was sterical —and that they had antici ted what was suggested, anyway. ; said that in view of the amount technical skill necessary, it was vious that an airline pilot’s salary s partly compounded of payment • danger. Why not more money for ire danger?

He said that it Was significant that trictions had been imposed against ?3 aircraft, and that no attempt 1 been made to solve the problem the safety margin on take-off for gle-engined planes.

Further, if the Territory had grown to the extent it was supposed to /e done, it should be capable of de ing local safety measures for it- P. :f the DCA had known about the iger of DC3’s for 14 years—a iod in which these aircraft had ;rated safely within the Territory— hould have consulted the Adminis tion and tried to solve the problem l problem that had been aggravated the Director and his officers who t P-NG representatives and had hing to offer by way of solution, ie said that because the Highlands as depended absolutely on air isportation it had been difficult to ;ct an economic crop for develop nt. Finally a crop had been chosen offee; but it was unlikely that n this would be able to survive h the steeply increased transpor on costs that seemed inevitable.

U 1 members of the Legislative .incil were unanimous in April that only answer to P-NG’s develop at in the future was to forget air isport and concentrate on roads. , official members and unofficial, Iged support for a road building gramme. However, in the Terri f roads aren’t constructed in five lutes and in the time-lag between will and the deed, aircraft will e to fill the gap. t is anticipated that as well as re gions of DC3 take-off weights, flying hours of pilots will shortly curtailed and that it will be re •ed also to load all freight for

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ward of passengers. At present, in freighter-passenger planes, the freight is carried in the centre of the plane and the passengers sit along each side.

No Forewarning

Whatever may have been discussed between the Department of CivilJ Aviation and the Department of Territories in Canberra ( PIM, April, I p. 45) the Administration of P-NG had no forewarning of the restrictions on DC3’s.

Dr. John Gunther, Assistant Ad-1 ministrator, made this quite clear in April. At the same time, he said, the Director-General of Civil Aviation was concerned only with safety; he had no obligation to the Administra tion and was acting entirely within his rights—and so he hoped that no one was going to quote him out of context on what he was going to say next.

He then outlined a few of the “direct results” of the restrictions.

They were; • Highlands people would probably have to pay 25 per cent, more for all commodities; • There would be an overall in crease of fares and freight rates; • The Highlands coffee industry would be in peril; • The new pyrethrum industry would likely be still-born; • The passion-fruit industry could fail; and • Highlands labour on coastal plan tations, etc., could become too ex pensive to recruit.

He said that in 1947 the DCA made an interim agreement for 10 years in respect of the safety factor for DC3 aircraft in the Territory. The 10 years passed, and the old decision to have a lesser standard than in Aus tralia, stood. In that time, a coastal base for cargo for the Highlands shifted from Lae to Madang because of the shorter haul involved, although it was quite generally recognised that the Madang airstrip was bad and dangerous.

Under the new restrictions, the take-off weights on coastal airstrips are to full Australian standards, and take-off weights from Highlands strips even less. This is not because High lands strips are too short or sub standard. It is simply a matter of altitude.

Dr. Gunther said that up to mid- April, DCA had not given any in dication of what alternative aircraft might get over the difficulties, but that the air companies had been very helpful indeed both with suggestions of alternative aircraft and the possi bilities of jet-assisted-take-off.