FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0913.PDF
572 CIVIL AVIATION . . . FLIGHT W. R. Grace and Co. each putting up $500,000 (about £180,000).No financial statements are published by the airline, since there are no public holdings of shares, but according to the Wall StreetJournal it is known that the two owners have received about $2,000,000 (£700,000) in dividends since the company started, orabout double iheir investment. At the same time, the net value of the business has increased to some $8,900,000 (£3,100,000). Nodividends, however, have been paid since 1945. Panagra borrowed $4,000,000 (£1,400,000) in 1946 for moderniz-ing its fleet of aircraft, and about $1,200,000 of this sum is said to remain outstanding; it is expected that it will be paid off by earlynext year. BREVITIES THE M.C.A. has now certified the airfield at Walney (Barrow-in-Furness) for use as a public airport. To be operated by the Barrow-in-Furness Municipal Corporation, the airfield has three tarmac runways, the longest of which measures 13,000 yd. * * * The Aerodrome Owners' Association has decided to hold itsannual conference this year in Bristol. It will probably last two days and will take place early in September.* * * A DC-3, equipped with a magnetometer, is being used by theAustralian Government for oil-prospecting nights in the Lake Wellington area. * * * Australian National Airways have estimated that since 1936their aircraft have carried a passenger-total (4,150,000) which represents half the population of Australia. The passenger-mileage figure for this period is two billion and the 217,000,000 lb of freight lifted is equal to about 30,000 DC-3 freighter-loads.* * * Indicative of the growing travel business to Japan, both com-mercial and tourist, is the expansion of Philippine Air Lines' service to two weekly flights between Manila and Tokyo. DC-6flights are scheduled via Okinawa, while a DC-4 service is routed through Taipeh, which is the centre of the Chinese Nationalist Government's activities. * * * The Swedish airline, A.B.A., which in February was amalga-mated with the Danish and Norwegian companies making up the Scandinavian Airlines System, reports a profit of Kr. 10,700,000(£738,000) for the period July 1st, 1949 to September 30th, 1951. The average total of employees during this period was 1,999. * * * Three Curtiss Commandos owned by Civil Air Transport, anAmerican company operating in the Far East, are now on their way to New Zealand to help cope with the rapidly increasingtraffic on the Cook Strait air-freight service which links the North and South Islands of that country. Bristol Freighters will beintroduced on June 1st, when these operations—at present run by the Railways Department—will be taken over by a new privatecompany, which is actually a subsidiary of Airwork, Ltd. THE LIGHT OF LONDON : A new 7 kW identification beacon employing mercury-filled cold-cathode fluorescent tubes has been added to the navigational aids at London Airport. It was made by G.E.C., to an M.C.A. specification. The 36 tubes, which are each 30 mm in diameter, have a total light output of 180,000 lumens. AMPHIBIOUS AMBULANCE : Before its departure last week for service in Norway, this Short Sealand acquired by Vestlandske Luftfartselskap gave a practical demonstration of the ease with which a stretcher and patient can be loaded. During the year ended March 31st, B.O.A.C's station at Miami,Florida, handled the record total of 24,025 revenue passengers; most of them were American tourists who were flown to destinationsin the Caribbean. * * * Following the runway improvements at Harewood airport,Christchurch, Tasman Empire Airways are preparing to operate direct services between Christchurch and Melbourne. They willprobably start with DC-4S and subsequently replace them by DC-6s. * * * With the introduction of the new summer schedules, whichbecame effective on April 29th, a total of 22 daily nights have been added to T.C.A.'s domestic services. Particularly heavyseasonal traffic is expected to develop this year and other flights will be added in June. * * * B.E.A. are meeting an ever-increasing demand from shippers for cargo space on their extensive network of regular European routes. The annual total is now said to have reached 9,000 tons, and this summer the Corporation has scheduled 22 freight ser- vices weekly out of Northolt to serve ten European centres, in addition to 12 flights-a week on the freight ferry between Berlin and Hamburg and two extra ferry flights a week between Rome, Milan and London. * * * Silver City Airways report that advance bookings received up to April 30th, for the Lympne-Le Touquet Car Ferry were 180 per cent ahead of last year's figure. Motor-cycle bookings, par- ticularly, have shown a striking increase from a mere handful in 1950 to 1,700 so far this year. On April 29th the Minister of Civil Aviation, accompanied by Lady Pakenham, inspected the facilities at Lympne, where a new Customs-and-passenger build- ing was recently erected. * * * In recent months United Air Lines personnel staff have beenmystified—though not displeased—by an unaccountable lengthen- ing of their stewardesses' average terms of service. Previously thegirls were resigning—almost always to marry—within 18 months of acquiring aircrew status; now the period has risen to 29 months. * * * Prestwick Airport has just lost a customer to Renfrew. Air France, who have operated seasonal services through Prestwick for the past four years, have decided to make Renfrew their Scottish terminal this summer. From next month they will operate a thrice-weekly service linking up with their London- Paris "restaurant" flight. A charter company, using Vikings, will operate the Renfrew route because the French company has insufficient crews. * * * During the first three months of this year some 88,000 overseas visitors arrived in the United Kingdom, as compared with 78,000 for the corresponding period of last year. The British Travel and Holidays Association reports, however, that American tourists are still somewhat reluctant to make advance bookings "in the light of world events". In view of the unsettled international situation, the Association considers that the present figures are "relatively satisfactory". B.O.A.C. report, incidentally, that of the 250 pas- sengers per day now reaching London in the Corporation's air- craft, a high proportion are Festival visitors.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
