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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0068.PDF
FLIGHT, 12 January 1950 CARGO ELDORADO ... The first regular air services in Australia had been born as early as 1922 to meet the dire needs of lonely settlers in the outback. The earliest of them linked the sparsely settled north-west region of Derby with the town of Gerald- ton, 1,500 miles to the south-west. In the same year, on the east side of the continent, Qantas established a regular i,000-mile link between two far inland Queensland rail terminals. Before long Qantas services were reaching widely over this huge northern State. They carried mails, newspapers, and perishable foods to isolated settlements long beiore the luxury of air freight and passenger services reached the capital cities. In the mid-'thirties, Capt. Ivan Holyman, who operated steamships between Melbourne and the island State of Tasmania, where he had extensive business interests, turned to aviation. He established a service with DC-2S which carried full payloads on the 300-mile hop across Bass Strait. From this beginning sprang the greatest of Austra- lia's 15 airlines—Australian National Airways, Ltd. While passenger services grew with gathering impetus, freighting tagged along unplanned as a sideline. Then came the second World War, America's amazing Air Trans- port Command, and the remarkable, ubiquitous C-47, to serve faithfully as the troop-carrier and flying freight-car of the Allied armies. A.T.C. revealed the true possibilities of air freighting. Towards the end of the war, when freight- ing was changing its nature from "air express" to "air cargo," A.N.A. (which had by that time spread its routes far and wide over Australia) began to tackle air cargo with energy; its space-salesmen knocked on the doors of busi- ness and industry, pushing the advantages of air freight as a commercial proposition, and building up cargo business on its own merits. In 1939-40, the airlines had carried only 800 tons of freight. They carried 5,021 tons in 1945-46, the year of reorganization and conversion. But in 1946-47, the freight figure took a big leap to 12,353 tons, and in the following year, a further jump to 26,036 tons. A slightly slower rate of increase was reflected in the 1948-49 total of 33,607 tons. A.N.A. estimates that by the end of 1949 its freight traffic will have increased about 900 per cent over four years. During the calendar year 1948,- Australian airlines carried, per head of population, 4^ times the amount of freight transported by American airlines. The dominating—and most intriguing—feature of the aviation industry in Australia to-day is the rivalry between the two most powerful of the 15 airlines. For it is a straight-out contest between state and private enterprises. The newcomer that has sprung up to challenge the ascendency of Australian National Airways is the Govern- ment-owned Trans-Australia Airlines. In direct competi- tion with each other on n routes, these two share by far the bulk of the freight and passenger business. T.A.A. did not come into the picture until late in 1946. It was A.N.A. Bristol Freighter swallows a 55-cwt. miniature motor coach. established after a vital provision of Commonwealth legisla- tion, designed to nationalize the airlines, was invalidated by the High Court. Whatever the outcome of this competi- tion, which at times assumes the aspects of commercial warfare, it is meanwhile reflected in the zeal and efficiency of the services supplied to the public by both operators. • In its short life, T.A.A. has developed swiftly, also ex- tending its network over the whole of the Australian Commonwealth. Its 13,497 miles of routes serve 51 cities and towns. It runs a fleet of 35 aircraft, consisting of Convairs, Skymasters, DC-3S, and a few veteran D.H.-84S (Dragons) for outback feeder services. The latter are to be replaced by Australian-built three-engined D.H. Drovers. T.A.A.'s private competitor, however, maintains its lead in the carve-up of both passenger and freight traffic. A^N.A. carried 612,083 passengers, compared with T.A.A.'s 454,759 in 1948-49. A.N.A.'s pioneering record in the cargo field, and its continued specialization in this department, gives it a bigger break in freighting figures: it shipped 19,694 tons in 1948 compared with its competitor's 10,129 tons. To its fleet of 40 aircraft, the private com- pany has added three Bristol 170 freighters. These and three DC-3S are used exclusively for cargo-carrying, but much A.N.A. freight still goes in passenger aircraft. Mechanical Handling . ' ;: .. • At most of the main airports A.N.A. has established special facilities for its cargo business. Construction of new freight-handling buildings, however, cannot keep pace with the swift expansion of goods traffic. Mobile cranes, fork-lift trucks and roller runways are installed; fleets of freight trucks and vans move bulk cargoes to the airfields, and deliver them without charge at the terminal cities. One advantage the Federal Government is able to give to its own airline is the sole contract for the carriage of mails on its own routes. T.A.A. canies, besides sur- charged mails, ordinary mails affected by surface transport interruptions. During 1948-49 the Government paid T.A.A. £A399,ooo for the carriage of a 2,811,416 lb of mail. The Postmaster-General's Department credits the Department of Civil Aviation with 9s 6d per lb gioss for mails carried on internal services, and D.C.A. lets out the contracts. In the interests of the fine safety record of the Australian airways, D.C.A. has frowned on fare- and freight-rate wars. It has persuaded the operators to call a truce on rate-cutting, leaving them to concentrate instead on matching service and efficiency. The major airlines ob- serve a gentleman's agreement on a freight rate structure that works out like this: — A rate of 6£d per lb, with a minimum of 2s 6d a package to cover any part of the first interstate hop, and 4d per 1b for any part of each additional stage of 500 miles. A package consigned from Brisbane (Queensland) to Hobart (Tasmania), a 1,410-mile trip involving three interstate hops, would be rated at is 2^d. More freight is offering at these rates than the operators Racehorse owners are making increasing use of the airlines.
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