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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0917.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 April 1952 419 MATUKU MOANA: This Heron, the first produc tion model, is shortly to arrive in Wellington, New Zealand, where it will be demonstrated by the de Havilland Aircraft Company of New Zea land. All the New Zea land National Airways' aircraft bear the Maori names of birds; Matuku moana means heron. CIVIL AVIATION T.C.A.'s FIRST OVERALL PROFIT TN the reports of Trans-Canada Air Lines on their domestic and *• overseas services for the calendar year 1951, made to the Minis ter of Trade and Commerce in Ottawa, Mr. G. R. McGregor, T.CA.'s president, was able to say : "Financially, this was by far the most successful year the company has yet had, but perhaps even more gratifying was the contribution it was able to make to the transportation needs of Canada. "Volume of business exceeded that of 1950 in all categories with system passenger transportation increasing by 20 per cent, air- cargo and air-express loads by 13 per cent and mail by n per cent. Although the traffic trend has been steadily upwards since the Company's inception, in no other year has the extent of the advance been so pronounced. "General expansion of the Canadian economy, immigration and the ever-widening public patronage of air transportation brought about a marked increase in gross revenues. On the other hand, the increase in expenses was en a very much smaller scale. The logical outcome of these two relatively satisfactory trends was a system surplus of $3,890,957" [£1,389,627]. Operating revenues snowed an increase of 16 per cent, while operating expenses were only four per cent higher. The cost per ton-mile in 1951 was reduced from 40.48 cents in 1950 to 37.22 cents. T.C.A. is now operating transcontinental and transatlantic services, certain regional services in Canada and to the U.S.A. and routes to Bermuda, Nassau, Kingston, Barbados and Port of Spain. The fleet consists of 20 Canadair Four North Star Sky liners and 27 DC-3S. In spite of the fact that the utilization of the Canadairs was at the rate of over 9 J hr a day by midsummer 1951, it became apparent that the fleet was not large enough, and three more aircraft of this type will enter service this year. Five turbo- Cyclone Super-Constellations have also been ordered, for delivery next year. In 1951 T.C.A. flew 3,925,058 aircraft-miles, 94,319,673 pas senger-miles, 498,722 mail ton-miles, 1,846,583 cargo ton-miles and a total of 13,345,858 revenue ton-miles; 42,646 passengers were carried. At December 31st T.C.A. was providing service for passengers, mail and freight over 8,641 miles of North American routes and 8,688 miles of overseas routes. Over the system there was scheduled 65,320 aircraft-miles daily and there were 2,039,157 available passenger-miles. On North American routes 96 per cent of all scheduled aircraft-miles were flown. AUSTRALIAN PROBLEMS P I Australia, air fares are expected to rise by at least 15 per cent, according to a report in The Financial Times. The increase will have been brought about by the increased cost of aviation fuel which came into effect on April 1st. The cost of 100 octane fuel has risen by iod a gallon to 4s io£d and 91 octane has risen by i|d to 3s njd. Including these increased fuel costs, the operating costs of the major Australian airlines will have risen by more than £3,000,000 since the last fare increases in I95°- An announcement of new fares and freight rates is shortly expected now that the Government has decided on its policy on the future of Trans-Australia Airlines. T.A.A. was founded by the Socialist Australian Government to operate in competition with Australian National Airways and other private companies. T.A.A. began operations in September 1946 and it has been very successful, but its existence has caused much discontent among the other airlines. Some indication of the feelings in Australia can be obtained from the statement issued by Mr. R. M. Ansett, managing director of Ansett Airways, after discussions which he had recently with the Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies. Mr. Ansett said : "I believe that in the first place T.A.A. should have been liquidated immediately the present Government took office. This would have been in accordance with the declared policy of the Liberal Party in Government competition and private enterprise. However, if the Government intends to retain T.A.A., the airlines should be placed on a truly competitive basis by a fair distribution of Government business among all local airlines. "This should be achieved by setting up an authority or board under the auspices of the Department of Civil Aviation which would allocate Government business and privileges among all local airlines." Meanwhile the Commonwealth Health Department has handed over control of its aerial medical services in the Northern Territory to Trans-Australia Airlines. This took place on March 1st, when the company took over two D.H. Dragons and a Miles Gemini together with the services of two air ambulance pilots, Capt. Jack Slade, A.F.C., and Capt. Harry Moss. Air ambulances have operated from Darwin for seven years and from Alice Springs for three years. They have so far flown over a million miles to bush airstrips, taking medical aid to settlers in the outback. Australian National Airways had threatened that they would go out of business unless they were merged with T.A.A. as a public company; but on March 27th the Government announced that T.A.A. will continue as a separate company and on the following day the Government proposed a rationalization of operations between the two companies to include a substantial share of air mail to be freely available to both concerns. Scheduling, freight charges, fares and other related matters would be integrated to bring earnings into proper relation with overall costs. The Government will offer financial assistance to both compan ies for the acquisition of modern aircraft. The new machines would probably be bought by the Government and chartered to the companies. If A.N.A. accepts the Government's proposals, an agreement between that company and T.A.A. would probably be executed and ratified by legislation to cover a period of 10 to 15 years. B.O.A.C. THROUGH GERMANY ON April 2nd B.O.A.C. was, for the first time in the history of British civil air transport, due to begin services through Germany to India and Japan. This service, which will continue to leave London each Wednesday is one of the thrice weekly London-Tokyo flights operated by the Corporation with Canadair Four Argonaut class aircraft and it will call at Frankfurt on both eastbound and westbound flights. This new via Germany service will, after calling at Frankfurt, revert to the old route and continue via Rome, Cairo, Basra, Karachi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Bangkok and Hongkong, reaching Tokyo at 19.10 L.T. on Sundays. »
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