FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1402.PDF
6i4 FLIGHT, 16 May 1952 CIVIL AVIATION THE FUEL CUTS WORLD-WIDE dependence on the United States for the supply of aviation spirit has been forcibly underlined by the general fuel shortage resulting from the strike involving 90,000 American oil workers. In this country, the first official action taken to counteract the shortage was the Control of Aviation Spirit Order, which came into effect on Monday, May 12th. The Order—anticipated by the cancellation of several B.E.A. services— provides that operators should not acquire, during the 28 days beginning on May I2th, more than 65 per cent of the amount of aviation spirit (in excess of 80 octane) obtained during April (a 30-day period). In practice, therefore, the reduction will be 30 per cent of recent deliveries. A comparable restriction has already been applied in America, and all countries have been urged to take similar steps. It was expected that fuel supplies would be reduced on a world-wide basis, and that airlines would not be able to avoid the problem by altering their .refuelling points. Announcing the Order, the Ministry of Fuel and Power pointed out, "to remove any misapprehension," that all fuel stocks in this country were owned by the oil companies. The fuel crisis comes at an unfortunate time—soon after the beginning of the summer season, with its consequent increase in traffic. The 30 per cent cut is based on fuel requirements in a less active month, and may thus have a greater proportionate effect on services. Flying on reserves, most companies operated normal schedules for the few days immediately following the announce ment. B.E.A., however, were particularly anxious to have suffi cient fuel on hand to cope with the Whitsun rush, and cancelled a number of services even before May 12th. Frequencies were reduced on most B.E.A. routes, including those from London to Paris (four of the 14 daily services have been cancelled, including three of the four off-peak flights), Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg and Diisseldorf; among the other routes affected are Manchester-Zurich, Manchester-Amsterdam-Diisseldorf, Manchester-Glas gow, Belfast-Birmingham and London-Orkney. Freight services from London to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris and Brussels have also been cancelled, but the London-Milan freight-services are unaffected, being flown by kerosine-burning Dart- Dakotas. Temporary use of a similarly powered Viscount proto type on the London-Paris route has been suggested as an interim means of increasing services without using extra petrol. Possible cuts in B.O.A.C.'s services were being discussed at the time of going to press, and the majority of the other trans atlantic carriers had not announced any cancellations. The open ing of "cut-fare" services on the transatlantic route has added to the already high degree of competition between operators, and there may well be a tendency to reduce services in other directions. The B.O.A.C. Comet flights to Johannesburg will not, of course, be affected. The independent airlines have not yet announced the extent to which associate services will be affected—although the effect on tours and other seasonal traffic may be severe; in any event, priority is likely to be given to the overseas trooping flights by the companies concerned. Severe restrictions have been imposed on all military flying by the U.S.A.F., excluding operations in Korea. R.A.F. operational flights in the Far East, transport flights and "individual training" will continue as usual, but squadron training (other than with jets) and communication flights will be reduced. RESTRICTIONS ON AIR TRAVEL INDICATIONS of a falling-off in airline business were referred to last week-end by Sir Miles Thomas, chairman of B.O.A.C. Speaking at the Conference of the Advertising Association, he said : "As I travel around the world, I have begun, in the last two or three months, to sense that there is a suggestion of recession in the air. The sellers' honeymoon is going to end. It is not going to be long before there are some pretty tough propositions facing everybody in the commercial field." Writing in the B.E.A. Magazine for April, Mr. Peter Masefield, chief executive, states that on the basis of Easter results, the £25 foreign-currency restriction seems to affect' B.E.A. traffic "quite seriously." London-Jersey traffic at Easter had increased by no less than 72 per cent, but the Corporation had carried 3 per cent fewer passengers to Paris this Easter than in Easter, 1951. In all, he states, international passenger-carryings were up by 7 per cent, whereas the domestic increase was 37 per cent; usually it was the other way around. SYCAMORE ON TOUR PILOTED by C. T. D. Hosegood, a Bristol 171 Sycamore helicopter left Filton on Sunday, May 1 ith for a 1,400-mile sales torn: of the Low Countries and Scandinavia, arriving at Brussels that evening after clearing customs at Lympne. The itinerary of the tour, which includes visits to the Hague, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, was outlined in these pages last week. AER LINGUS LAST YEAR DURING their financial year which ended recently, Aer Lingus carried 273,055 passengers—22 per cent more than in 1950-51. The company's freight traffic went up by 33 per cent to a total of 3,760 tons. Profit for the year is expected to show an improvement on the previous year's figure of £15,000. The totals of passengers carried on the busiest Aer Lingus routes were as follows (increases in parentheses): Dublin-London, 125,364 (18 per cent); Dublin-Liverpool, 32,191 (28 per cent); Dublin- Glasgow, 30,485 (19 per cent). On the less frequent Dublin-Jersey service, the increase was 98 per cent. ELIZABETHANS AT WORK DURING the first three weeks of April, the B.E.A. Elizabethan Flight logged some 1,046,000 passenger-miles on scheduled services and carried 3,430 passengers. At present the "aircraft type cost" of the 47-seat Elizabethan on the 230-mile London- Paris route is given by B.E.A. as i.76d, compared with 2.05d for the 27-seat Viking, i.65d for the Pionair (32 seats) and 1.63d for the 38-seat Viking; the present figure will, however, be reduced by an increase in the overhaul-life of the Elizabethan's Centaurus power-plants and the expected improvement in their cooling-drag. The figures quoted, incidentally, reflect only the costs directly associated with the separate types of aircraft mentioned. S.A. AIRWAYS AND AIRPORTS DURING 1951, South African Airways carried 15,689 passen gers, compared with 12,789 in 1950. The Union's Minister of Transport stated in his recent Budget speech, however, that S.A.A. were expected to show a loss despite the increased revenue. Internal fares would have to be reviewed in the light of increased operating costs. Sums allotted for new equipment for S.A.A. included £440,000 for aircraft, £50,000 for workshop machinery and supplies and £13,800 for Link equipment. The Minister also stated that construction work was proceeding well at the three major airports—Jan Smuts (Johannesburg), Lamontville (Durban), and Bellville (Cape Town). He said that the question of whether airports should be transferred to the central govern ment had recently been investigated by a committee, whose report was now being studied. GERMAN TRAFF/C-CONTROLLERS under instruction at Munich, where the Civil Aviation Division of the American High Commission is training 85 of these students to take over airfields in the American Zone. Perfect English is a requirement for the course, which attracted 2,000 applicants, most of them ex-Luftwaffe men.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
