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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1652.PDF
3i August 1951 241 A foe night-impression of N.Z.N.A.C.'s flagship DC-3 taxying out for a ,ervice on the main trunk-route. The heading picture on the left shows a busy scene at Nelson (South Island). The crowd had assembled to welcome foreign athletes. the job of developing a post-war air transport system. Extensive pilot, engineering and staff recruiting and train- ing schemes were established and nine Lodestars and seven Dakotas were sent to Australia for conversion to a satisfac- tory standard of passenger comfort. An organization was built up to put them into service on the delivery dates on which they were due to return to New Zealand. Unfor- tunately, the aircraft were up to a year and more late in arriving, and this expensive organization had to await them. Meanwhile, a major airfield crisis had arisen for the Cor- poration. At the time of assembling the fleet, the airfields at Rongotai (15 minutes' surface journey from the heart of Wellington) and Mangere (11 miles from Auckland) were available for operations with Lodestars, Electras and Domi- nies, although they were closed to Dakotas, which had to use Paraparaumu field (35 miles from Wellington) and w*henuapai (20 miles from Auckland). In spite of the fact that the long road journeys which the Dakota services entailed caused a loss of passenger-bookings, and an increase in overheads, the Dakotas were competitive so long as they could be filled, for each could be operated with 29 passengers at about the same cost as a Lodestar with 15. Airfields Closed At the end of 1947, however, both Rongotai and Mangere were closed to Lodestars and Electras, while Dominies were not permitted to operate to the former airfield. This restric- tion heralded heavy financial consequences for the Corpora- tion. The services between Rongotai and Blenheim and Rongotai and Nelson, for which a substantial goodwill had been paid to Cook Strait Airways, suffered a decline in patronage estimated at 50 per cent for Blenheim and 30 per cent for Nelson. Services from Wellington to other cities took very often half as long again to accomplish, most of the extra time being taken up in road travel. Apart from the unpopularity and cost, there were repercussions throughout the whole of New Zealand's air network, for Wellington is the hub of the system and the capital of the Dominion and many air travellers journey to and from this point. Even today, one of the most criticized routes is Wellington-Auck- land, linking the two largest centres of population; on this service, 1 hr. 55 min. only is spent in flight compared with 2 hr 20 min on the ground. Other costly initial difficulties in operating services through Paraparaumu included a complete lack of hanger accommodation, so that aircraft had to be ferried morning ' • Two ways only: Rarotonga, one of the more picturesque airfields. and evening for maintenance checks at airfields 50 or more miles distant] and lack of housing accommodation near Paraparaumu airfield meant heavy staff costs. Finally, the Lodestar, on which considerable forward planning had been based, was forced to operate on equal terms with the DC-3 and consequently it no longer retained any economic merit. Despite these very substantial setbacks and a loss in two years of some £575>°°° N.Z.N.A.C. has shown every sign in 1950-51 of having got on top of its problems. The institu- tion of twelve strategically placed sales offices throughout the Dominion and Fiji has provided a system of centres which have promoted air travel through some three hundred agents. Of New Zealand's total population of less than 2 million, some 245,090 passengers used N.Z.N.A.C. last year. In addition, nearly 8 million lb of freight and mail were carried. Dakotas Re-fitted The modification of the seven DC-3S converted in Australia to 24-seaters, the development of an engineering organisation capable of undertaking the full conversion of military Dakotas to DC-3D standards at less than half the cost of sending the aircraft to Australia, and the acquisition of addi- tional Dakotas from the R.N.Z.A.F.—all these factors have permitted the Corporation to carry more passengers and freight on scheduled routes in 1950-51 than ever before while logging 1,200 fewer flying hours than in the previous year. The fleet has been streamlined to a prospective 14 DC-3 passenger aircraft (four are under or awaiting conversion), three DC-3 freighters, six Lodestars in service, six Dominies and three Fox Moths. The retention of the small types is necessary to operate to districts where the airfields will not accommodate larger aircraft. The Sunderlands and Electras have already been retired and it is expected that the Lodestars will also disappear before the end of 1951. In addition to building up the New Zealand internal net- work, N.Z.N.A.C. has pioneered two South Pacific airlines, with a total unduplicated route mileage of 5,273. Inaugur- ated in November, 1947, a flying-boat service between Auck- land, Suva and Labasa proved most popular. For economic reasons it was handed over to T.E.A.L. when that organisa- tion took delivery of Solents, and N.Z.N.A.C. was thereby permitted to close down its flying-boat wing; for two years, however, the Corporation had undertaken the major develop- ment of air transport in this new sphere. Two military Sunderlands were converted to excellent passenger standards by the engineering staff at Hobsonville, Auckland— the biggest aircraft conversion job undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere. Offices were established in Fiji and the administration of air services leading from New Zea- land to the remote islands of Norfolk, Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa, Aitutaki and Rarotonga brought air transport to these sparsely populated regions of the South Pacific for the (Concluded at foot of page 243)
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