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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 2229.PDF
15 August 1952 191 MILLIONAIRLINE F EW airline operators will quarrel with the opening statement of the annual report of K.L.M. Royal Dutch Airlines : "In the year 1951 aviation made considerable progress. . . ." The remark is certainly borne out by K.L.M.'s balance sheet for the year, which shows that the company's revenue rose to some £23111 from the previous year's figure of £ 19m. After making allowances for depreciation of aircraft and other fixed assets, and deduction of profits tax, the company's operations showed a surplus of approxi mately £,im. The principal operating statistics for the company in 1951 were as follows (percentage increases over the previous year are shown in brackets): Revenue ton/km, 153m (24); load factor, 67.9 per cent (2.9 per cent); cost in Dutch cents per ton/km available, 99 (—5); revenue in Dutch cents per ton/km available, 104 (1). The company did not increase the size of its fleet in 1951, so that the greater output was thus achieved by higher annual utilization. Costs did not increase to the same extent as revenue, and although wages in the Netherlands went up by 5 per cent in March 1951, these increases were offset by economies secured by greater efficiency. During the year K.L.M. placed orders for six Convair 340s (which will replace some of the 240s used on the European routes, thereby releasing them for service in the West Indies) and a Douglas DC-6A long-range freighter. Orders had already been placed in 1950 for seven DC-6Bs and nine Model 1049 Super Constellations, this order being subse quently increased to thirteen. In size, K.L.M. ranks fourth among the world's airlines, and at the end of the year under review its fleet consisted of twenty DC-3S, ten DC-4S, seven DC-6s, sixteen L-749 Constellations and twelve Convair 240s. The report con cludes that prospects for 1952 are favourable, although it is expected that higher prices and higher wages will affect operating results. K.L.M. is confident of a large turnover, although it admits that signs of a slight economic recession can be observed here and there. CHARTER NOTES I N the seven days ending August 10th, 1952, British independent air transport operators were due to complete approximately 110 charter flights, quite apart from normal trooping business. For most companies the week was a good one and over 75,000 miles of en route flying were scheduled. The work was roughly divided into 42,000 miles of passenger flying and 33,000 miles of freight flying; the freight mileage was made up of 12,000 miles of cargo transport between Berlin and Hamburg, 10,000 miles of carrying ships' spares, 5,000 miles of horse flights, and some 6,000 miles of miscellaneous freighting. It is estimated that charter trips by British aircraft accounted for the movement of 1,100 passengers and 400 tons of freight. Skyways of London, Silver City and Air Charter (Aviation Traders) flew approximately equal mileages and B.K.S. Aero Charter came very close behind them. With the exception of one Tudor flight, all reported business was carried out by Yorks, Bristol 170s and Dakotas. Skyways' Yorks completed 22 stage lengths between Southern England and Helsinki; in addition to bringing home the British, Canadian and United States equestrian teams, the company transported between 350 and 400 Olympic competitors and their equipment between Great Britain and the Finnish capital. Another York operator, Eagle Aviation, flew 45 members of the Turkish Olympic Team from Helsinki to Istanbul. This company's aircraft also flew 46 students from Copenhagen to Paris and returned to the Danish capital with a similar load. The B.K.S. Dakotas made six flights between this country and Basle, each with 32 passengers, mainly students. They also flew a Dakota-load of ship's spares from Amsterdam to Lisbon and sent another Dakota from Paris to Kuwait with a cargo of explo sives for the Kuwait Oil Company; this aircraft flew on to Karachi and brought back a load of ship's spares to Oslo. Scottish Aviation brought the number of ship's spares flights to four by flying 4,800 lb of equipment from Copenhagen to Cairo. Under sub-contract from Crewsair, Air Charter flew 27 passen gers to Lusaka in one of their Dakotas. They also flew 72 passen gers to Johannesburg in a Tudor for Tropic Airways. Tropic also chartered a Silver City Bristol 170 to take 32 passengers from Malta to Johannesburg. Other flights by the latter company's Bristol 170s included three trips from Sylt to Renfrew, each with 32 passengers, and one flight with 38 passengers from Renfrew to Aldergrove; these flights were for the Air Ministry. Forty-two Boy Scouts, camping in France for a week, were flown to and from Le Touquet. Twenty-four animals were flown by Silver City during the week; these comprised four horses of the Egyptian Olympic equestrian team, which were brought back from Helsinki to Paris, four race-horses flown from Blackbushe to Le Bourget, and 16 polo ponies flown from Lympne to Deauville. Two loads of cheese were flown from Le Touquet to Lympne. Air Charter and Silver City, continuing their cargo flights between Tempelhof and Hamburg, completed 54 round trips. Scottish Airlines and Hunting Air Transport aircraft on "summer rush" charter to Aer Lingus also completed a large number of trips, but details were not available and have not been included in the foregoing estimates; it is known, however, that Scottish made five trips to Dublin. B.C.P.A. MODIFY DC-6s BY fitting paddle-bladed Hamilton Standard airscrews on their Douglas DC-6 transports, British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines expect to raise the take-off weight of these aircraft from 93,200 lb to 95,200 lb, of which an extra 1,200 lb will be available for mail or cargo. At the same time rear cargo compartments on their DC-6s are being enlarged to allow for extra capacity. The new airscrews are of the reversible-pitch type. RECORD BANK HOLIDAY TRAFFIC MORE than 15,500 passengers were flown out of London on B.E.A. services during the week ending on August Bank Holiday. This breaks the Corporation's 1951 record of 13,000 in any one week and tops the previous week's 1952 record of 15,224, during which Kensington Air Station handled 7,213 passengers in one day. Altogether there were 108 flights to Paris, 43 to Nice, 92 to Jersey, and 31 to Guernsey. Extra flights were also made to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Germany, and Malta. Aer Lingus reports that between August 1st and August 4th ON SCHIPHOL, of £1m in 1951. APRON are examples of the main aircraft-types operated by K.L.M. Royal Dutch Airlines, which, as recorded this week, made a profit On the left are one of the company's new DC-SBs and a DC-6 (the "intruder" is a Scandinavian DC-4); L-749 Constellation and Convair 240 bring up the rear.
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