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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1490.PDF
644 FLIGHT, 13 November 1953 CRUSADER COACH Stansted-Nicosia by Skyways . :::- • . . . • £on PROVIDED nobody reads the words cynically, Othello's "You're welcome, sir, to Cyprus" is Heaven-sent copy for the appropriate authorities in their drive to attract visitors to the island. Equally apt, on Octo ber 31st (having regard to temperatures then obtaining in England and Cyprus), was Ricr.ard of Gloster's "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York." The words were delivered by Sir Alfred Le Maitre (Controller of Ground Services, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation), at a dinner in Nicosia marking the inauguration of Skyways' "Crusader" colonial coach service between the United Kingdom and Cyprus, using, of course, Avro Yorks. The first public flight was scheduled for last Wednesday, November 11th, and the service will henceforth operate on alternate Wednesdays from Skyways' Stansted (Essex) base and on Thursdays from Nicosia, Cyprus. Single and return fares are £41 10s and £75 respectively, and Skyways take some pride in the fact that the return fare is £33 less than by any other air service to Cyprus. The island being in the sterling area, the company believes that it will be possible to enjoy a fortnight's holiday, with luxury hotel amenities, for about £100. The same service, incidentally, forms the first direct air link between the islands of Malta and Cyprus, the corresponding single fare being £18 10s and return £33 8s. "Crusader" Yorks will carry freight at normal I.A.T.A. United Kingdom /Nicosia rates, and a special rate of 2s 9d per kilo (3s 8d per kilo under 45 kilos) between Malta and Nicosia has been agreed. Passengers with Sir Alfred Le Maitre on the inaugural flight included Mr. R. E. Hardingham, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Air Registration Board; Sir Wavell Wakefield, director of Skyways; A. Cdre. Sydney Smith, the company's contract manager and Mr. H. P. Snelling, commercial manager. Pressmen, travel agents and others with direct or indirect claims to participation, brought the passenger list to 32, when York G-AHEY, with Skyways' chief pilot, Capt. A. N. Marshall, in charge, left the bleak purlieus of Stansted Airport below and spiralled for height before heading south across the airways. At Malta drinks and a meal were stoked atop the nourishment bountifully offered aboard the York, and six more passengers joined though the load was still short of the advertised 45. A flight bulletin gave notice that Crete lay near in the Stygian blackness, and A. Cdre. Sydney Smith recalled how many a long year ago he had taken Sir John Salmond into that island's Mirabella Bay in a Blackburn Iris. The excursionists booked in at Nicosia's Ledra Palace Hotel in the early hours of the morning after that of departure, exhibiting various symptoms of weariness and deafness—but of contentment too. No one would pretend that fourteen or so hours out of twenty-four are most agreeably passed in a York; but neither can it be denied that a fortnight in Cyprus for £100 or so is a very attractive reward indeed. Mr. Eric Rylands, Skyways' managing director, had been in the Middle East on business and joined the party on the first day in Cyprus. At the inaugural dinner he expressed sympathy with the people of Cyprus over the recent tragic earthquake. He re minded guests that his company had been operating through and from Cyprus since the war, and that in recent months it had carried large numbers of Her Majesty's Forces from Britain and the Canal Zone for service or holidavs. Military installations in Cyprus, he said, were increasing. Though tlie Crusader service A Skyways York, airborne from the company's Stansted base. would initially run only once a fortnight, he hoped and believed that the licensing authorities in the United Kingdom and Cyprus might be persuaded to permit greater frequency. He disclosed that Skyways had carried over 70,000 passengers and had flown nearly 150 million miles last year "to this end of the Mediter ranean." The Governor of Cyprus (His Excellency Sir Andrew Wright, K.C.M.G., C.B.E., M.C.) being occupied with pressing tasks con nected with earthquake relief, he was represented by the Colonial Secretary, Mr. J. Fletcher-Cooke, C.M.G., who remarked that, as the island had no internal air services, and as the Naval helicopters had been withdrawn, it took a considerable time to reach the remote villages on the western end of the island. Better content was Colonel R. Strickland, who replied for Malta, and who observed that, whereas the fastest service between that island and Cyprus had previously taken three days, there was now a link of only five hours. The writer took the opportunity of learning something about the air affairs of Cyprus from Mr. D. R. Forsdyke, Director of Civil Aviation to the Cyprus Government. Nicosia, said Mr. Forsdyke, was a joint-user (R.A.F./Cyprus Government) airfield. Hitherto the Government had contracted the management of the civil sec tion to Cyprus Airways, and civil signals had been the responsi bility of Cable and Wireless, Ltd. From January 1st next the Government would itself run the civil terminal area with its own staff and would take over civil signals, leaving Cable and Wireless to operate the transmitter station at Saranta Spelia. The arrangement with the R.A.F. whereby that Service was responsible for air traffic control, meteorology, fire-fighting, etc., would con tinue, the Cyprus Government making an appropriate contribution to Air Ministry funds. Ten Lines to Nicosia It had been planned to lengthen the main runway to 8,000ft, which would involve diverting a main road; taxi-tracks were to be widened to 75ft and the parking area increased. In this latter connection Mr. Forsdyke reminded us that Nicosia is now used by scheduled services of the following companies: B.O.A.C, B.E.A., TAE (National Greek Airlines), DHY (Devlet Hava Yollari) Turkish State Air Lines, Middle East Air Lines, Air Liban, El Al Israel Airlines, Misrair, Cyprus Airways and Sky ways. The airfield work was considered by Mr. Forsdyke to be of the greatest importance, for the present runway (200ft of which was, in any case, sterilized by the road junction) was already marginal in the worst temperature conditions. We gathered, how ever, that, as a result of the earthquake damage, the airport im provement scheme might be seriously set back. We ourselves were able to observe that the night-flying facili ties were not up to modern civil standards. The R.A.F. in Nicosia, of course, argue that they are training pilots to fly for war and that, in any case, relatively little night-flying is needed in connection with their particular work. The civil Government, therefore, hopes to procure new equipment, including Calvert approach lighting, on its own account. The new 2? kW M/F beacon on Mount Olympus, operated by the R.A.F., is proving of very great value to the airlines; R/T. contact at 300 miles and bearings at 200 miles are not uncommon. Shell's contribution to the island's flying facilities will be a new static refuelling installation, initially with six points. As a footnote to the above comes news from the Air Ministry that over 13,000 Service leave-goers flew in Skyways from the Suez Canal Zone to Cyprus between April and October last year. It is further disclosed that the R.A.F. instituted a scheme for helping the company with spares for, and servicing of, their Yorks, the crews of which, operating a shuttle service with only two machines in any given psriod, flew between 100 and 120 hours a month to clear the reception depots.
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