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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1367.PDF
16 May 1952 589 Qantas Empire Airways' Background,—The history of Qantas Empire Airways goes back to 1920, when, on November 16th, Queens land and Northern Territory Aerial Services, Ltd. (Q.A.N.T.A.S.), was registered. This company undertook joy-riding and taxi work at first but on November 2nd, 1922, began to operate a regular service between Charleville and Cloncurry via Longreach. Qantas built up its operations in the territories incorporated in its name, and in April 1931 the company took part in the first Australia to England experimental air mail flight. On January 18th, 1934, Qantas Empire Airways, Ltd., was formed to combine the interests of Qantas and Imperial Airways in readiness for the opening of the regular England to Australia air service which began at the end of that year. Qantas had a magnificent war record. Perhaps its greatest wartime achievement was the reopening of England to Australia air communica tion by the operation of its Indian Ocean route from Australia to Ceylon. Today Qantas Empire Airways, now completely Australian, has over 20,000 miles of routes in Australia, between Australia and New Guinea and other islands and to Britain, Hong Kong and Japan. The company has surveyed an Indian Ocean route linking Australia with South Africa and it will operate regular services over this important route. The fleet consists of Constellations, DC-4S and DC-3S, Drovers and some smaller land aircraft and a number of flying-boats. It has on order some Super-Constellations. The company's "Kangaroo" route between Australia and the United Kingdom is worked in association with British Overseas Airways Corporation. SABENA. From M. GILBERT PERIER (President) C ONSIDERING the 33 million ton-miles transported in 1951, the position of the SABENA seems to correspond pretty well to the economic importance of Belgium and to the passenger traffic and freight shipments moving in and out of the country. The policy of this company for the years to come will be to con tinue to pursue, as closely as possible, the growth of this traffic which has, for the last years, maintained a steady annual increase of approximately 20 per cent. Today, the permanent problem of being adequately equipped to meet requirements is complicated by the perplexing choice between jet, turboprop and piston-engine craft. Indeed, each month spent in considering the matter means two or three months wasted as far as delivery dates are concerned. In addition, every air carrier is going all out for experimental high-density services and reduced rates right in the midst of an international inflationary period; it is, therefore, quite understandable that any well-meaning board of directors should number a soothsayer amid its members. No member of my board having this divine power, I am limited to giving here a few indications regarding the present and the im mediate future of this company. Our services are divided into four sectors which are, in order of importance : Brussels-Congo, North Atlantic, Europe to the Middle East, and the "domestic" Congo lines. These services represented respectively 38,29,21 and 12 per cent of our activity during the year 1951. The figures show that only half our work assumes a really international aspect, the other half coming under the definition of "cabotage imperial" or of just plain "cabotage." Another characteristic of our operations is the rela tively small share shown in the trans portation of mail (4.39 per cent in 1951) and the relatively important share of freight carried (36.84 per cent in 1951), leaving only 58.77 per cent of the total to passenger traffic. Our programme for 1953 and 1954 includes very important developments due to the operating of another eight DC-6B aircraft (six in 1953 aQd two in 1954) iQ addition to the six existing DC-6s, which will represent, more or less, 30 million extra ton-miles available as compared with 1952. The distribution of this extension has not, as yet, been settled defi nitely; it will probably cover : (1) an increase of the Brussels-Congo services which will be brought up to a frequency of 11 weekly passen ger services via Rome, Tripoli, Casablanca, Lisbon or Cairo, as the case may be, plus three weekly freight services; (2) seven weekly pas senger services between New York and Brus sels, as compared with six in the summer of 1952, as well as a weekly cargo service; (3) the proposed operation of a Brussels- Bombay service; and (4) the introduction of tourist-class high- density services in Europe and possibly the Middle East. These, roughly, are the future plans which are at present being considered. The final results may possibly turn out to be quite different. SABENA's Background.—Belgian air transport was initiated by S.N.E.T.A., which opened services from Brussels to London and Paris in 1920 and which, following a series of surveys in the Belgian Congo, opened the world's first colonial airline on July 1st, 1920, with a service between Leopoldville and N'Gombe. Having accomplished its task of study and experiment, S.N.E.T.A. appointed a successor—the Societe Anonyme Beige d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aerienne (SABENA) which is still the Belgian national airline. SABENA opened up a European network and also a system of internal services in the Congo, and on February 23rd, 1935, a regular service was established between Belgium and the Congo, thereby linking the two systems. During the war the company evacuated as much equipment as possible to the Congo, where it was placed at the service of the Allies. After the war SABENA rebuilt its European routes and reopened its services linking Europe and Africa. The company now operates over 30,000 miles of routes in Europe, to and in Africa and between Belgium and the United States. The fleet consists of Douglas DC-6s, DC-4S, DC-3S and Convair-Liners and DC-6Bs are on order. SABENA also operates a helicopter mail service in Belgium with Bell 47s. SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES SYSTEM. From PER A. NO RUN LET me state right away that I believe there is room and need for both first-class and high-density or "tourist" services, but that tourist services (partly through diversion from first-class service but, I hope, mainly through exploration of entirely new markets) will gradually grow into the most important part of our operations. The success of this development depends, however, to some degree upon how we approach the matter from the very beginning. Technical development over the last years has enabled the air lines to maintain a fairly stable fare-level in a period of generally rapidly increasing prices. There are now many indications that costs are catching up with us and that for at least some years to come the increase in operating expenses will not be fully offset by increased productivity. It is urgent, therefore, that air fares are as soon as possible brought into reasonable relationship with general economic conditions. I believe that the market, if aggressively sold, can bear an increase in fares. With regard to the tourist service we must not be blinded by the very heavy demand that apparently exists for low-priced air trans- S^A.S.'s Background.—An agreement signed in July 1946 brought the Scandinavian Airlines system into being for the operation of the trans atlantic services of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Air Lines. This experiment was so successful that in February 1948 it was decided to extend the merger to include the European routes of the three companies, D.D.L., D.N.L. and A.B.A. In 1951 the three companies signed a 25-year agreement, back-dated to October 1st, 1950, forming a consortium to have a single board of directors and one management. All aircraft are now owned by the consortium and the former constituent companies were transformed into (President) portation. We must carefully investigate to what extent we can profitably satisfy this demand with the equipment that we have today or can obtain within a reasonably short time, and whether our costs actually permit us to operate at prices low enough to attract the market. When evaluating this, we should not overlook the very real possibility that in a few years the service that we offer the passengers on our tourist aircraft may well, for com petitive reasons, be of the same quality as the service at present offered on the standard class. While there is no disagreement as to the necessity for tourist services there is some variety of opinion as to when and how fast they should be introduced. In the airline industry we cannot afford too-costly experi ments. It would be best for all concerned to go slowly and make sure of a sound foundation. non-active holding companies. The national holdings in S.A.S. are 3/7ths Swedish Air Lines and 2 7ths each Danish and Norwegian AirLines. S.A.S. pow operates over 30,000 miles of routes in Europe, to North and South America, Central Africa and the Far East. The present fleet consists of 12 DC-6s, nine DC-4S, six Saab Scandias, 25 DC-3S and two Junkers Ju 52/3m floatplanes. Douglas DC-6Bs are to go into service on North Atlantic tourist-class flights on May 24th. The Sandringham flying-boats which had until this year worked the Oslo-Tromso route, have been withdrawn and for the first time landplanes are used as far north as Bodo.
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