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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1359.PDF
9 October 1953 513 CIVIL AVIATION THE LATA. MEETING A T the ninth annual general meeting of *» the International Air Transport Asso ciation in Montreal, Sir William P. Hildred, director-general, presented his annual report on Monday last. He said that although the world's airlines were carrying five million more passengers this year than in 1952, and over longer distances, they were actually making less money than before. Both the increased traffic and the smaller financial returns were due to the spread of lower-fare tourist services over the inter national airline network, Sir William con tinued. Since the end of the war, airlines had reduced fares by as much as 50 per cent, but it would probably be several years before the increasing volume of tourist traffic could compensate the operating companies for the drastic reduction in price of individual tickets. In the meantime, the airlines were "operating perilously close to the economic margin," and they were liable to suffer heavily from any possible recession in world trade. Cargo traffic, he continued, had increased during the past year by about 6 per cent to a 1952 total of 950 million tonne-kilometres —a somewhat disappointing rate, but the 1,000,000,000 mark should be passed in 1953. "The world airline fleet, which has been extensively modernized during the past year, now numbers about 3,000 aircraft for scheduled operations, and the latest types of piston-engined, turbo prop and turbojet machines are now being put into regular service in significant numbers," Sir William said. Fleet expansion was being accompanied to some extent by increases in the number of personnel employed by the scheduled airlines; the total was now 300,000. Concerning frontier documents and formalities, Sir William stated: "Reductions of government formalities since 1949 have reduced the time necessary to clear passengers at gateway airports on the North Atlantic route by 750,000 man-hours per year. The cost of producing document forms has been cut as much as 30 per cent, depending upon particular routes. The number of man- hours necessary to complete documentation in airline offices has been reduced 35 per cent on the route between North and South America, and 40 per cent on the North Atlantic routes, the latter alone representing a saving of 60,000 man-hours per year. At the same time, the cost of visa fees for clearance documents has also FRAMED in the window of a U.A.T. Heron, after arrival at Youande on its morning "aerobus" service from Douala, is the DC-3 belonging to the High Commissioner for the Cameroons. FRENCH-AFRICAN HERON, seen in front of the airport buildings at Douala (in the French Cameroons) is one of four in African service v,lih U.A.T. The 130-mile journey to Youande (see picture below) knocks 15 hours off the 16-hour train time for the trip. been reduced by 50 per cent on the Europe-Far East route, and 35 per cent on routes between the Americas." The director-general maintained that governments should help operators to achieve a balanced economy by means of tax, charges and subsidy policies enabling effective reserves to be built up. At the meeting, Mr. Gordon R. McGregor, president of T.C.A., succeeded Dr. Walter Berchtold, of Swissair, as ninth president of the Association. Canadian Pacific Airlines and T.C.A. are hosts to the session, which is being attended by senior Canadian officials, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and representatives of other international organizations, as well as by delegates from the Association's 70 member-airlines. SWISSAIR'S 1952 REPORT SWISSAIR flew a total of 18,277,600 ton-miles and carried 292,3^1 passengers last year, according to the company's latest annual report. Over a route mileage of 18,819 miles, 33,782 hours were flown by the airline's DC-6Bs, Convairs, DC-4s and DC-3s, at a load factor of 70 per cent and a regularity of 98.7 per cent. A net profit of 784,520 Swiss francs (£64,410) was announced. THE CORPORATIONS' BOARDS THE appointments of Sir Miles Thomas and Lord Douglas as chairmen of B.O.A.C. and B.E.A. respectively have been extended for undisclosed periods. Both appointments were due to terminate next year. Sir Miles Thomas has been chairman of B.O.A.C. since June 1949, while Lord Douglas took over B.E.A. chairmanship in February of that year. It has also been announced that Sir Arnold Overton is being appointed to the Board of B.E.A. with special responsibilities for finance and organization, and that Mr. Basil Smallpiece, financial comptroller of B.O.A.C., is being appointed to that Corporation's Board. SCOTTISH ACTIVITY IN the spring and early summer of this year, Dakotas of Scot tish Airlines made 484 flights from Berlin, carrying over 15,000 East German refugees to Hanover and Hamburg. At home, in the past twelve months, over 10,000 passengers have been carried between Prestwick and the Isle of Man. A weekly freight service with York aircraft between London, Prestwick and Montreal was continued until last month. The company's fleet of Yorks has also been operating from airports in the London area on trooping flights to Australia, Canada, Southern Rhodesia, Cairo, Sudan, Aden and Singapore. These aircraft, which are maintained at Prestwick, are fitted with backward-facing seats and carry 50 troops or their wives and families. Occasionally they carry cargoes of military freight. The present series of flights to Cairo will be followed by others to Nairobi and Singapore. *
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