Services
p. 48 · Read in the full issue
New Air
With the introduction in August of a new carrier into the South Pacific—American Air lines—there are already signs of the air war hotting up.
Two important new plans are the proposal by PanAm to introduce Jumbo Jets services across both the North and South Pacific in October, and a proposal by Qantas for special Pacific circle fares.
The Qantas proposal will be put to the lata traffic conference in Honolulu in September. Qantas sug gests discounts of 20-30 per cent, on tours taking in the US West Coast, Honolulu, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, NZ, Fiji and other Pacific Islands. Main aim of the scheme is to encourage American travellers headed for the East to return home via Australia and the South Pacific instead of by the direct route.
However, BOAC general marketing manager, Mr. H. O. Baker, said in Sydney he didn’t feel there was any room for such a discount in the Pacific at the moment. Pacific traffic is still comparatively small.
He said, “When air fares go down, hotel and other ground costs go up”.
A classic example was the Caribbean, where many places had priced them selves out of the market.
He said the South Pacific should be promoted separately as a tourist area. It was possible, for instance, to double tourist traffic from the UK to the South Pacific in the next five years.
PanAm is awaiting approval from various governments to introduce 747 services between the US and Australia on October 1 and from the US to Saigon, via Honolulu and Guam on the same date. Wake Island and Manila would also get services.
Other new services in the South Pacific include a UTA twice weekly flight from Sydney to Tontouta (Noumea) and Vila from August 15, an extension of Air NZ’s Thursday Auckland-Nadi flight to Honolulu from August 20, and a weekly, instead of fortnightly service between Brisbane and Nauru by Air Nauru Falcon jet. The increased Nauru service has already started.
Construction of the first airstrip on Niue, NZ dependency east of Tonga, is ahead of schedule and the first commercial service is expected early next year.