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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0373.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 February 1951 30-AUGUST 1919-MARCH 1939(ON AN ENLARGED VERTICAL SCALE) 239 YEARS < 3- T1 (nw AUGUST 1919 -MARCH 1939 * XFP-K.IT * UP =5 E / • / \ •• V I -6)/- / ,• > RtVtNUL WO 3L rs 0 WAR JJ— •=1 -E | 1R v / -wu h•\i \i I:vEf NIU / I —I E- / YEAR CO O 01 5? f;g. I.—Capacity and load ton-miles flown by British air transport from Fig. 2.—Revenue and expenditure—the financial picture for the yean August, 1919, to March, 1950. from August> |9|9( t0 Marchi |950. MAKING AIR TRANSPORT PAY ... records, in the 32 years from August, 1919, until August, 1950—setting aside the six years of war—British commercial air transport has flown some 300,000,000 aircraft-miles, has carried some5,100,000 passengers, and has operated some 801,000,000 capacity ton-miles. A compilation of the traffic figures achieved during this periodis set out graphically in Fig. 1. An interesting point is that in the five post-war years British air transport has carried two and a halftimes as many passengers for eight times as many passenger-miles as were flown in the 20 inter-war years from 1919. The post-warintensity of operation is thus 30 times as great. British operators have earned in revenue some £114,000,000^sterling, 89.8 per cent of it since the war—a figure which does not reflect the difference in currency values. On the debit side,the operating expenditure in the 32 years has amounted to something like £174,500,000. That means an operating loss ofapproximately £60,500,000 on the deal—a deficit which works out at a loss of about 4s for each aircraft-mile flown, or i8d lossper capacity ton-mile. The financial picture over the years 1919-50 was shown in the table published last week and is illustratedgraphically in Fig. 2 above. Yet, in this generation of operations, the annual turnover hasbeen built up from the £27,000 revenue for the year 1919-20 to the combined revenue of £26,416,000 achieved by B.O.A.C. andB.E.A. in 1949-50. The all-in operating cost has come down from the 69-2d per capacity ton-mile of 1924 (at the higher value ofmoney) to the 43.9d per capacity ton-mile of 1950. Most significantly, the fares have been reduced—in an era of risingprices—from an average of 7.i2d per passenger-mile in 1922 to an average of 5.68d today. All these comparative figures must be judged in relation to thefluctuation in the value of money since 1919. Fig. 3 shows the equivalent annual value of the pound sterling based on the averagerate for 1950, while Figs. 4 and 5 set out in graphical form a comparison of operating results converted into similar moneyvalues at today's rate. Whereas some of the pre-war specific operating costs percapacity ton-mile appear low in terms of actual money paid, when they are compared in equivalent 1950 money values a moreaccurate picture is brought out. They are seen to be relatively much higher. Thus, Imperial Airways, during their 16 pioneeringyears of operation, reduced the mean specific cost to some 12 per cent below the costs of the first four years. The private operators—with much less development expenditure and more modest standards—achieved a mean reduction of some 30 per cent.Since the war the two British Airways Corporations—in spite of inflated costs immediately following the war years—have achieveda mean specific cost which is 44 per cent below the original level and 37 per cent below the costs per capacity ton-mile of ImperialAirways. They can do better yet. Compared with the mean specific operating cost of 68d per YEAR Fig. 5.—Deficit as a percentage of total expenditure, 1919-1950. c.t.m. achieved by the British Airways Corporations during theperiod 1945-50, B.E.A.'s specific operating cost today stands at 44d per c.t.m.—about one-third of Imperial Airways' costs—whereas the loss is down to 5.5d per c.t.m.—one-eighth of the inter-war rate. All these figures show that, converted into equivalent moneyvalues of 1950, and in spite of an actual money loss of £60,500,000 in 32 years, British air transport has been making steady progresstowards an eventually profitable state, reducing its costs while keeping its fares approximately constant. The margin between £1-%, Fig. 3 —Equivalent value of the pound sterling based on its overage rate in 1950 (from smoothed curve of wholesale prices index). 4.—Revenue and expenditure per capacity ton-mile, expressed in 1950 currency equivalents. 1919-50.
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