Norfolk tourism takes a dive

NORFOLK Island’s tourist industry

has been brought to the edge of ruin by the strike of Australian domestic pilots, which has grounded

the eight weekly East-West Airline flights

from the eastern seaboard of Australia, About 95 per cent of the island’s economy is directly or indirectly reliant on visitor traffic. Traffic from the Australian mainland by the end of September totalled 130 people a week. Small aircraft kept up a skeleton service, com-

pleted by three Royal Australian Air

Force Hercules flights, although the Government in Canberra had promised that by the end of October assuming the pilots were still on strike the systern would be managing two East-West

and one Hercules flight a week.- Two of the four hotels have closed, and throughout the island cuts have been made to cope with the estimated 60 per cent drop in revenue. Staff have been retrenched, placed on short hours, or encouraged to take leave without pay.

What has angered the islanders is that the Australian Government will not take what they see as the obvious course of action, which is to allow Air New Zea land to operate its Boeing 737 fleet on an Auckland-Norfolk-Sydney service.

These aircraft already fly from Auckland to the island, and the 737 is the largest jet which can use the Norfolk Island

landing strip.

But such a solution while it would

solve the island’s tourist industry’s prob lems would mean the Australians de claring the Norfolk-Australia sector as an international route. Or so the Hawke government has argued. But the reluct ance to take such an obvious step seems strange when the extraordinary lengths taken by the Australian authorities are considered.

It is likely the Australians do not want to give Air New Zealand a foot in the door. Air New Zealand has been lob bying to be allowed to fly internally in Australia, on the grounds that Ansett has been permitted to operate domesti cally in New Zealand.

A further dimension to the issue is that the Norfolk sector is already seen as semi-international by the Australians.

They require people arriving from the

island to have passports, a move taken Efforts to charter an airliner that has the sufficient range and can land on Norfolk have been unsuccessful.

In a bitter twist to the story, Norfolk Island Airlines cannot get Australian civil aviation certification for a Dash 8 aircraft it has bought. Australian rules require that two-engine passenger air craft, propellor driven and carrying more than 19 people, be no further than 60 minutes from a suitable aerodrome at any time. The rule means that the Dash 8, which carries 36 passengers, cannot fly between the Australian mainland and Norfolk. The aircraft failed by 12 mi nutes to come within the rule yet only four months ago the Australian author ities permitted such aircraft to be up to 90 minutes from an airfield.