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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 2053.PDF
DECEMBER 2ND, 1948 FLIGHT 66q Corporations9 Annual Reports B.E.A. and B.S.A.A. Operations for the Year (Continued from page 634)I N the previous issue.of Flight, dated November 25th (pp.6 34-5). a brief summary of the Corporations' annual reports and a more detailed examination of the report of B.O.A.C. was published. Summaries of the reports of the other two Corporations are now given below. It should be pointed out that the comparative figures for B.E.A. losses during the year under review and for 1946-7 have been widely stated as £3.573,989 for 1947-8 and £2,157,937 ••for 1946-7, giving the impression, that the annual loss has increased considerably. However, the 1946-7 figure repre- sents the loss for only eight months' operation, the increase is, therefore, quite small. B.E.A. ::./; .-•"..•.•,•-••"•-.•B ECAUSE B.E.A. did not operate as a separate Corporationfor the whole of the year 1946-47, a direct comparison of the figures for the first and second years cannot bemade. The loss for the year under review amounted to £3,284,282. The Corporation believes that in the main, thefirst two of three objectives—safety, efficiency and economy— have been achieved, and that considerable progress has beenmade towards economic operation of services. As an indica- tion of the trend the loss per ton-mile carried in 1947-48 washalf that for 1946-47, and expenditure per revenue ton-mile decreased by 40 per cent and was continuing to fall. Duringthe twelve months under review, B.E.A. carried 511,522 pas- sengers, 2,284 tons of freight, and 1,391 tons of mail. On October 6th, 1947, eight uneconomical services were with- ' drawn: London-Helsinki; Belfast-Carlisle-Newcastle; Isle ofMan-Carlisle; Bristol-Southampton; Cardiff-Bristol; Prestwick- London ; Cardiff-Weston-super-Mare ; Prestwick-Belfast. Threeother Island services were withdrawn for the winter months. ' As Vikings became available four new Continental serviceswere introduced: London-Geneva; London-Nicosia (in con- junction with Cyprus Airways) ; London-Malta; Glasgow-Copenhagen. The last-named was subsequently withdrawn. Continental services were considerably more remunerative than • the internal services, which are expected to show continued . substantial losses.There was an increase in the volume of traffic in 1947-48, and on the Continental routes comparisons of corresponding periods are as follows :•— .-. :• -..*. :.-;* -. ;•;_*•; .-. •— .,-• Percentage .''."'. " ' increase 1946-7 1947-8 or decrease No. of passengers carried 58,618 99.5I4 +69.8Tons of freight and excess baggage carried 661 1,481 +124.1• Tons of mail carried 414 389 -6.0 Load ton-miles performed 3,339,000 5,547,000 +66.1There were also large increases in .traffic on the internal routes, which were the direct responsibility of B.E.A., for™ practically the whole of 1947 and 1948. April 1946 April 1947 Percentage to to increase March 1947 March 1948 or decrease No. of passengers carried 224,334 36l'3JI +61.1 Tons of freight and excess baggage carried 809 988 +22.1- Tons of mail carried 526 792 +50.6 Load ton-miles performed 2,433,000 4,137,000 +70.0The overall load factor for the two years fell by 6.7 per cent, mainly as a result of the great increase in capacity offered,the use of which did not reach expectations. Regarding fares, in order to bring Continental fares more into line with route• costs 5 to 10 per cent increases were made on Paris, Mediter- ranean and Iberian routes. The average increase on internalfares which are settled by B.E.A. with Ministry approval, was approximately 15 per cent. Monthly return fares at 15 percent rebate were introduced, however, in addition to the exist- ing 60-day return to 10 per cent. To increase the popularityof internal services the introduction of reduced fares to attract special classes of traffic is being considered.In connection with the carriage of air mail, the Corporation regret that continued representations for higher rates on in-ternal services have not been acceptable to the Post Office, and negotiations which have been carried on have so far been un- 1 23 successful. Freight rates on internal air services have beenhigh. With the introduction of Dakotas, however, additional freight capacity became available, and a decrease in ratesaveraging 13 per cent was introduced in February this year. Services in the past year have been mainly operated by Vikings,Dominies and Dakotas, while two uneconomical types, Avro XIXs and Jupitersy had been withdrawn. Technical difficul-ties experienced with the Vickers Viking are being progressively resolved, but the financial results, reflected in the high engineer-ing costs, the difficulties which are inherent in the introduc- tion of a new type. The licence to operate a Dakota fleet willprobably extend on from 1950 to 1953, and it was proposed to equip the passenger versions with 28 seats in place of thepresent 21. The Dominie fleet had been reduced by approxi- mately one half. It has been decided to adopt the following new types: (a)the Miles Marathon, of which B.E.A. have agreed to accept seven if satisfactory terms can be arrived at; (b) the Ambas-sador, twenty of which are being negotiated for at present. An aircraft of simple design and construction to replace theDominie is still being sought. Satisfactory results of experimental carriage of mail withthe aid of three Sikorsky S.51 and two Bell 47B3 helicopters are reported. A regularity of 96 per cent was achieved withSikorsky aircraft over a 115-mile-long route with ten inter- mediate stops. The aircraft was seldom more than five minutesoff schedule in spite of very high winds. The outcome of the successful experiments was that the G.P.O. made an arrange-ment with B.E.A. to carry out an experimental service with live mails in East Anglia during the summer months. The two specially equipped Mosquitoes of the Gust ResearchUnit made frequent flights along various European routes at between 20,000 and 40,000ft. Cases of clear air turbulencehad been encountered, but it was premature for clear-cut con- clusions to be drawn. The cost of the experiments did not fallon B.E.A. With the elimination of uneconomical types, the utilizationof the Viking and Dakota was considerably increased. Com- parative figures for the summers of 1947 and 1948 were 3.41and 4.06 compared with 4.71 and 4.79 hours per day. One of the limiting factors continues to be the restricted maintenancefacilities available at bases. The short stages of the internal routes mean relatively more time on the ground, and theaverage stage flight of the internal" services is 103 miles as against 378 on the Continental services. Aircraft maintenance and overhaul was the largest singleitem of expense absorbing approximately 40 per cent of the Corporation's gross revenue. This cost was excessive in rela-tion to the revenue earned and could be ascribed to two main causes: the conditions under which the aircraft had to beserviced, and the types concerned. Jupiter aircraft, subse- quently withdrawn, were included in the period under review,and their servicing costs were approximately three times what would be considered reasonable. Hercules engines fitted to theViking had undergone overhauls at an average of 400 hours, whereas the fully-developed engine could be expected to runfor 800 to 1,000 hours between overhauls. The scale of landing fees had been unduly onerous on theinternal services during the early part of the period, but since May 1st a new scale, giving substantial relief, had been inoperation. It was regretted that no retrospective relief was possible. Analysis of the figure of £209,585 was as follows:Internal Continental Other Services Services Flights Total £ £ £ £ Fees payable atM.C.A. air- ports 106,780 34-455 — i41'235Fees payable at airports notunder M.C.A. control 38,800 a9.49i 59 68,350 £145.58° £63,946 £59 £209,585 It is significant that Continental services landing fees wereequivalent to 2.3 per cent of the total revenue, but on internal services they amounted to 12.9 per cent.On June 30th, 1948, priorities arrangements came to a final
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