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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0535.PDF
26 February 1954 CIVIL 247 AVIATION B.E.A. PLANS AND PROBLEMS NEW services to be operated by B.E.A. during the coming summer include a direct route from London to Stockholm and another London-Stockholm service via Oslo, both to be flown with Viscounts. The Corporation's turboprop airliners, of which a fleet of 20 will be in operation, will also open a Central European route to Athens by way of Dusseldorf and Munich, and they will take over some services from Ringway, Manchester. For the first time, Elizabethans will operate into Berlin. Announcing these plans in the February issue of the B.E.A. Magazine, Mr. Peter Masefield adds: "I believe that our competitors are going to find this summer a trifle warm." Mr. Masefield's monthly "Chief Executive's Page" also sets out very clearly the reasons why B.E.A.'s domestic short-haul services "are likely to remain an economic problem for a long time to come." As indicated by the figures quoted below, the Viscount and Elizabethan are extremely economical to operate on an inter national route such as London-Zurich (489 miles), but under present conditions are incapable of making a profit on domestic short-haul routes such as London-Renfrew (344 miles). Under lying causes for this unsatisfactory state of affairs include low revenue rates; high fuel taxes; high landing fees, occurring fre quently; and short stages, causing terminal costs to be proportion ately high. NET REVENUE:— Per seat-mile Per mile from 47 passengers ... COSTS :— Fuel per mile Landing fees per round crip ... Landing fees as percentage cf revenue (at 65 per cent l/f.) Total cost per aircraft mile ... Total cost per seat-mile Break-even load factor (per cent) ... ELIZABETHAN London- Glasgow 3.48d 13.63s 44.2d £17.50 c 7 o/ 19.6s S.OOd 144% London- Zurich 6.61 d 25.89s 22.4d £16.26 1-9% 14.6s 3.74d 57% VISCOUNT London- Glasgow 3.48d 13.63s 21.5d £18.75 6-1 % 15.2s 3.52d 112% London- Zurich 6.61 d 25.89s 25.8d £17.88 2.1 % 13.8s 3.88d 53% Looking ahead, Mr. Masefield forecasts that B.E.A.'s final move from Northolt to London Airport will take place during the first weeks of 1956, provided that the new central terminal buildings at L.A.P. are completed on schedule. The last B.E.A. departure from Northolt is likely to be in March of that year. By 1958 B.E.A.'s summer operations will have increased to such an extent that Gatwick will be urgently needed to accommodate the overflow. Another problem discussed by Mr. Masefield is that of replacing Waterloo Air Terminal, which will have to come down by 1957 under the current L.C.C. plan for developing the South Bank. One solution would be a new, superior building on the same site, although this would be costly and Waterloo was not ideally situated in relation to London Airport. Two alternative possi- LIGHTER PACKING is often quoted as one of the advantages of air freighting. On occasions, as illustrated above, machinery can even be carried uncrated, the only protection required being grease and a tarpaulin (during transit to the airport). The illustration shows a B.S.A. precision lathe, weighing over a ton, which was flown from London to Schiphol last Saturday by one of K.LM.'s DC-3 freighters. bilities were (a) roofing over the "Cromwell Road curve" at Gloucester Road and (b) an air terminal above West Kensington underground station. Mentioning B.E.A.'s hope of eventually concentrating most of their "processing" at the airports, Mr. Masefield added that "con sideration is being given by an L.T.E., British Railways, B.E.A. and B.O.A.C. Working Group to the possibility of extending a loop line from Feltham to the Central Area at London Airport, thereby offering a fast rail service from the Airport to Waterloo or Victoria." Readers will remember that this possibility was dis cussed by Sir John Elliot, chairman of the London Transport Executive, when interviewed by Flight last November. C.A.A. JET TRANSPORT REPORT R EPORTS from Washington last Tuesday quoted some of the findings of a group formed by the Civil Aeronautics Adminis tration to study the problems of introducing turbine-powered transports in America. The group forecast that U.S.-built jet transports would enter service, initially on domestic routes, be tween 1957-59, and that American airlines would introduce turboprop transports at about the same time. The C.A.A. experts foresaw no major traffic or terminal prob- hms arising from the use of jet airliners, but thought it might be necessary to provide special loading aprons to minimize airport ncise and blast effects, and to accelerate the development of braking devices. They recommended "thorough testing of jets in simulated airline conditions and in cargo work before being used on scheduled passenger flights." It will be interesting to learn what arrangements have been suggested for financing this theoretically ideal programme. r«itfi AIR-SEA PARTNERSHIP: The first of three recent arrangements bringing shipping capital into the British inde pendent air-transport industry was that announced last October between the Hunting Group and Clan Line Steamers, Ltd. k provided for the formation of Hunting-Clan Air Hold ings, Ltd., a new £1m company which has taken over the entire share capital of Hunting (now Hunting-Clan) Air Transport, Ltd., and Field Aircraft Services, Ltd. Board-members of the holding company and its subsidiaries shown on the left are named below : Standing (left to right): M. H. Curtis (managing director, Hunting-Clan Air Transport), J. L. Smith (managing director, Field Aircraft Services). L. C. Hunting, J. A. Thomson, C. P. M. Hunting, R. R. S. Cook, Hon. Anthony Cayzer, E. H. Baker; and seated (left to right): G. L. Hunting, Lord Rotherwick (chairman, Clan Line Steamers), P. LI. Hunting (chairman. Hunting Group), and Sir Nicholas Cayzer.
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