AIR TRANSPORT NEWS
Page 42
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PORTSMOUTH TO PARIS DIRECT.
THE new week-day service of Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation, Ltd., between Portsmouth and Paris, started on July 22, and our representative has made use of the service and experienced the usefulness of the connections. The time taken for the 220 miles (flown direct) is 1 hour. Machines leave Portsmouth at noon and Le Bourget at 3 p.m, The single fare is £4 15s., the week-end return £,6 15s., and the 60-day return £8 10s.
The company co-operates with Provincial Airways, Ltd., and Norman Edgar Western Airways, Ltd., so that Penzance, Newquay, Plymouth, Torquay, Southampton, Cardiff and Bristol, also Bournemouth, Brighton and the Isle of Wight stations, are connected via Portsmouth, with waits of only a few minutes there.
If Railway Air Services, Ltd., co-operated, Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol would also be conveniently linked, for the times fit in. An Airspee,d Envoy, with a Marconi AD 41/42 radio set, is used on the Paris line and a pilot and radio-telegraphy operator are carried. The machines fly high for comfort and safety, and, as the cruising speed is about 150 m.p.h., the Channel crossing is reduced to about 48 minutes. • Permits to carry freight both ways are being sought, and the line may be used to transport late mails from Paris to French trans-Atlantic ships which call at Southampton after Cherbourg. Hillman's 'Airways, Ltd., acts as agent in Paris.
NEWCASTLE'S NEW MUNICIPAL AIRPORT OPENED.
ONJuly 26, the Secretary of State for Air opened the municipal airport of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, at Woolsington. The area is 102 acres, giving runs of 700 yds. to 1,000 yds. There is a hangar 90 ft, by 70 ft., and workshops, stores, offices, ambulance room, etc., also a club house. A special oil and petrol store, with highspeed electric pumps and swing arms, is provided. The aerodrome is 5 miles from the city centre.
HILLMAN'S SUNDAY SERVICES REDUCED.
I T is announced that Hillman's Air ways, Ltd., has withdrawn certain Sunday services. Henceforth, on Sundays there will be only two services to and from Paris, instead of four, one departure to and from Antwerp, instead of three, one service to and from Glasgow, instead of two, and no services between Hull and Belfast, instead of the one departure each way on week-days.
The company's summer programme B38 left too little time for work on the aircraft, and, as it is clear that people will not travel by early services on Sundays, this opportunity has been taken of concentrating on maintenance work.
SUMBRO APPROVED:
TWO Air Ministry officials flew to Shetland, on July 26, and inspected Sumbro air field, which they approved as an aerodrome.
A NEW CUSTOMS AIRPORT.
THE new municipal airport at Rams1 gate has been approved as a Customs aerodrome and facilities for the clearance of both passengers and goods are now available. This provision has been made primarily for the new service of Hillman's Airways, Ltd., between Ramsgate and Le Zoute, for the Belgian coast resorts. Ramsgate is well situated for journeys to Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia.
LINKING LIVERPOOL WITH LEICESTER.
THE managing director of Crilly Airways, Ltd., visited Liverpool, last week, and discussed with Mr. A. D. Jenkins, the city surveyor, plans for an air service linking up the present Crilly network of air lines with Liver
pool. A service is to be started, probably on August 6, between Liverpool (Speke), Nottingham and Leicester. Bristol, Norwich and Northampton will then also be linked by the Crilly lines with Liverpool.
TRIPS BY SEA AND AIR.
CTO-OPERATION between air-transport companies and coach operators and other transport services continues to progress. Hillman's Airways, Ltd., has now made an arrangement with the General 'Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., by which Londoners can fly from Essex Airport to Ramsgate in the morning, have five hours by the sea, and return by the S.S. 'Royal Eagle" up the Thames to Tower Pier, arriving there at 10 p.m. The combined fare for the round trip is 25s. 6d.
RADIO FOR ORKNEY.
REPRESENTATIVES of the Air Ministry visited Kirkwall, last week, in connection with the proposed installation of a mobile radio-telephony apparatus to aid pilots on local air lines
during fog. It is understood that a point between Hillhead and Wideford House, near Kirkwall, has been chosen for the first installation and that a similar apparatus will probably be pro vided in the Shetland Islands. The possibility of a public county aerodrome on the Orkney mainland was also explored, the site favoured being at Hatson, near Kirkwall.
HIGHER AIR-MAIL TRAFFIC. MAs sent from Britain by air toAILS European destinations from April.
June, 1935, totalled 16.34 tons, against 10.5 tons a year earlier. Air mails sent to Empire destinations totalled 24.87 tons, compared with 13.66 tons. The total to all destinations, 41.21 tons, shows a rise of 61 per cent. The weight of parcel mails has risen from 19.06 tons to 21.07 tons.
There is a growing feeling in Europe that all first-class mails should be sent by air, and the international operating companies are likely to offer an attractive rate of three gold francs per kg. per 1,000 km. If Britain were to participate, it would have to give mail contracts to foreign air lines on routes on which there are no British lines to share in the loads.
For this reason, unsubsidized air, transport companies in England are looking into the possibilities of air services, assisted by air-mail contracts, to places abroad. In particular, the Amsterdam— Copenhagen — Stockholm route attracts attention.
CONTINENTAL SERVICE NOT TO BE SUSPENDED.
O,ICIAL intimation has been received in Hull that Royal Dutch Air Lines, Ltd., has reconsidered its decision to suspend the AmsterdamHull—Liverpool service, and that this will be continued until the end of the season, in October. It has been stated that the suspension had been decided upon because of a shortage of pilots, but it was admitted that the number of passengers using the service was still disappointing, although it had
continued to increase. The amount of outgoing mail carried has also declined, but the incoming mail has increased.
AIR-SERVICE WITHDRAWAL CAUSES DISAPPOINTMENT.
THE announcement that North1 Eastern Airways, Ltd., had decided to suspend its London—YeadonEdinburgh service, on July 27, caused disappointment at the Leeds-Bradford municipal aerodrome at Yeadon, but there is an impression that another service will soon be running on this route—possibly by another company. With a view to increasing the utility of the aerodrome, the joint aerodrome committee recently adopted proposals to equip it with wireless directional apparatus and facilities for night flying.
YORK AIRPORT LEASE.
VORK City Council has decided to 1 allow Yorkshire Aviation Services, Ltd., Londonderry, near Bedale, the facilities of the new municipal aerodrome which York Corporation is constructing outside York. The facilities are being granted on a 10-year lease.