page_title: Union Airways of N.Z. Ltd
section_title: Government subsidy
hierarchical_section_title: Union Airways of N.Z. Ltd / Licence / Government subsidy
caption_attribution_description: English: New Zealand Union Airways Ltd, Speed comfort regularity by air; Union Airways, 1936-1939, Relief print, red, green, silver and black, on paper, 886 x 570 mm, Printed Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-E-AVIATION-1930s-01 There is something intriguing about cut-away pictures showing a peek inside an inner world, normally hidden from view. It is often used in children’s illustrations and the covers of toy model boxes! On the other hand, the heading “speed, comfort, regularity” evokes advertising for another type of product altogether. Union Airways was, from 1936, the largest New Zealand airline, and began a scheduled interisland service on 16 January 1936. In 1938, it merged with East Coast Airways, which had begun in 1935. Both companies had financial backing from the Union Steam Ship Company. Take a closer look
context_page_description: Union Airways of New Zealand Limited was New Zealand's first major airline. It was founded in 1935 by local shipping giant Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Its services reached main centres from Auckland to Dunedin and extended to Gisborne and the West Coast of the South Island. Union Airways was instrumental in the establishment of Australian National Airways and TEAL.
  After the Second World War New Zealand's government nationalised Union Airways forming New Zealand National Airways Corporation taking over on 31 March 1947 all Union Airways operations assets and facilities and adding them to those taken from other local airlines.
context_section_description: The general public seemed unaware that no other country had commercial flying services without government subsidy. Only in United States were military and civil aviation clearly separated though civil was still subsidised.  For their Brisbane-Darwin-Singapore service operating the same DH86 aircraft QANTAS Empire Airways received a greater subsidy per mile than proposed for the trunk route. The board had been directed to take into account the value of the usefulness of all the proposed airways facilities for auxiliary defence purposes.
caption: De Havilland DH86 Express Karoro
exif: {}