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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1586.PDF
740 CIVIL AVIATION . FLIGHT INDEPENDENT NETWORK "TO refer to a privately owned air-transport firm •*• as a charter company is not only unfashion able, but in most cases inaccurate—as indicated by the 1952-53 report of the British Independent Air Transport Association. This informative docu ment, reviewed briefly in the previous issueof Flight, records that 149,259 passengers flew on scheduled services operated by British independent airlines during the 12-month period ended June 30th, 1953. In 1951-52, the corresponding figure was 68,078. This substantial increase has apparently been achieved without stunting the growth of the Cor porations' passenger traffic. The Government can therefore claim that its policy of simultaneously protecting the Corporations and encouraging the independents has proved reasonably successful. However, the chairman of B.I.A.T.A., in his address at the Association's annual dinner, reminded his audience that "Most of our progress must be considered in relation to our earliest precarious existence . . . although conditions are better, we are by no means sailing in sheltered, waters." A. Cdre. Powell added that some of today's financing and fleet problems were "relatively worse than the earlier struggles for survival." Re-equipment problems are underlined by the fact that independent companies have been approved to operate 14 all-freight services—to points in Europe, the Middle East, Canada and America—but that none of these services has yet been inaugurated. Stressing that freight development will be slow until the right types of aircraft become available, the report voices a fear that the "built-in economics" of such aircraft will be nullified by steady increases in labour costs, materials, landing fees and other over head expenses. The B.I.A.T.A. report also remarks that the future envisaged for Colonial Coach services (operated at fares about 40 per cent below first-class rates) has not yet materialized to any extent. It urges that, on those Commonwealth routes where there is little foreign competition, the potential is so great that there is room for more than one British operator and certainly room for three classes of PARIS PASSE NCERS, MAIL 8 "SUPPLEMENTARY FREIGHT. VEHICLES, PASSENCERS, ~"*FREICHT & MAIL. _DECISION ON SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE rLA BAULE Domestic and overseas route-patterns ap proved for operation by independents, together with routes for which applications have been made to the A.T.A.C. These maps are from the annual report of B.I.A.T.A. service. Of 25 applications for Colonial Coach services submitted by the independent companies, 18 were rejected. B.I.A.T.A. states that, in opposing these applica tions, the Corporations seem to have been more nervous than they need to have been—"particularly in view of the established prece dent on the Nairobi route, where all classes of services have pros pered and unhealthy competition has not developed." The report includes maps — reproduced on this page—showing both domestic and overseas routes operated by independent airlines, together with routes for which application has been made but not yet finally approved. Despite this impressive growth in the scope of the independents' scheduled opera tions, it may be noted that, on a ton-mile basis, non-scheduled flights still account for eight times as much traffic as regular flights. Trooping is the largest single type of contract or charter operation undertaken by the independents; 88,285 Servicemen or members of their families flew in independent aircraft during the period reviewed. On the subject of inclusive tours, which B.I.A.T.A. regard as "a pure charter operation and thus . . . the domain of the inde pendent operator," the report observes that the Government's insistence on treating tours as scheduled services has resulted in many economic penalties. Tours are submitted to a large number of scheduled-service operational and commercial regulations which, it is claimed, produce a severe rise in costs and rates.
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