build up and improve

Ministers agree to build up and improve Pacific aviation

“A landmark in civil aviation history”, is how the Australian Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr.

R. W. Swartz, described a con ference of aviation leaders from six South Pacific countries which ended in Melbourne on Septem ber 20.

It was agreed to take a vigorous joint initiative in regional co-opera tion based on Fiji Airways and im proved aviation services. Ministers saw this as a significant development based on a long period of steady and constructive pioneering in the South Pacific area.

Mr. Swartz said that the meeting of civil aviation leaders had been called at an important stage in the development of aviation in the South Pacific, particularly because of the impending introduction of the Boe ing 747. Because of the growing im portance of aviation in the region, further conferences would be held.

$2l million spent

Ministers who also attended the conference were Mr. William Rodgers, Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Shipping in the UK Board of Trade; Mr. J. B. Gordon, Minister for Transport, NZ; Mr. C. A. Stin son, Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism, Fiji; President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru and Mr. Buraro Detudamo, Minister for Works, Nauru; and Mr. Langi Kavaliku, Minister of Education and Works, Tonga.

A representative of Western Samoa was unable to attend this meeting but has been invited to future con ferences.

The UK, Fiji, NZ and Australia have been members of the South Pacific Air Transport Council (SPATC) since its inception in 1946.

Since then SPATC has spent more than SA2I million on airports, meteorological and communications facilities in the South Pacific needed for trans-Pacific trunk route opera tion.

Of this, more than $l7 million has been spent on developing Nadi air port, Fiji, as a first-class international jet airport, administered on behalf

of SPATC by the New Zealand aviation authorities.

Work on the first stage of Nadi improvements, the freight building, is to start soon, and it is expected that there will be no need to extend the 10,700 ft main runway to accommo date either the Boeing 747 jumbo jets or the Concorde. But taxiways and turning facilities will have to be improved to enable the big jets to move and turn freely on the ground.

Details of the new terminal facil ities are not yet complete, but they will include automated baggage-hand ling and aerial ways to provide direct access from the passenger ter minal to the aircraft. The first jumbo jets are expected through Nadi early in 1971.

In recent years local Fiji staff have been trained at the airport and in Australia and NZ to a point where, of a total staff of more than 300, the number seconded from overseas is expected to fall to about nine by 1973.

Tonga joins

Tonga has this year joined the council and Nauru and Western Samoa are being invited to join.

SPATC also provides advice and in formation to local administrations, an airport and other ground facil ities required for regional as dis tinct from trunk air services in the South Pacific.

All countries represented have in terests in Fiji Airways—the regional operator based in Fiji. Qantas acquired Fiji Airways in 1958 and in 1959 BOAC and TEAL (now Air New Zealand) joined the company as equal shareholders.

Since then, Fiji Airways has grown from a purely domestic operator in Fiji and now also serves Vila and Santo in the New Hebrides, Honiara and Port Moresby, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Nauru, Western Samoa and Tonga. It is soon to acquire its third modern HS74B turbo prop air craft. It also operates DC3 and Heron aircraft. The Fiji Govern

ment joined the company as an equal shareholder in 1965.

In the last three years the govern ments of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate and the Gibert and Ellice Islands Colony, Tonga, Nauru and Western Samoa have welcomed the opportunity of taking up shares and appointing directors to the board of Fiji Airways.

Ministers representing Island gov ernments stressed at the conference the importance of Fiji Airways’ regional services to the island peoples on its route network. Fiji Airways operates in partnership with Poly nesian Airlines based in Western Samoa, and recently there was an exchange of shareholders. Fiji Air ways took over the management of Polynesian Airlines earlier this year.