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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0736.PDF
328 FLIGHT By STANLEY BROGDEN Dakotas and Herons make up the fleet of Butler Air Transport, prominent among Aus tralian "outback" opera tors. Both types figure in this attractive study from Tooraweenah, N.S.W. AUSTRALIA'S DOMESTIC AIRLINES —and Their Re-equipment Problems: An Australian Writer's Views AUSTRALIAN airline operators in 1953 lifted a record total of some 1,900,000 passengers—equivalent of a L quarter of the Commonwealth's population. Their executives estimate that this figure will be doubled in the next few years by the introduction of tourist-rate travel on internal services. This anticipated growth should parallel the post-war development from the 1945-6 figure of half-a- million passengers. The post-war progress was due to the purchase of DC-4s and Convairs, which not only added seating capacity but almost doubled block speeds. Dollar investment was cut down by the facts of geography, which compelled Australian operators to extract from their aircraft the utmost hour of utilization. Austra lian National Airways and Trans-Australia Airlines have for many years gained 4,000 hr annually from the Skymasters. They have been fortunate in operating over stages averaging 500 miles under weather conditions which European and American operators would regard as sublime. In the past two years, the great post-war development has slowed to an annual increase in the 10 per cent bracket, partly because of the lack of new equipment (due to Australia's import control policy) and because of the general settling-down of economic expansion in 1950-3. An obvious conclusion at the moment is that a major growth in passenger traffic will occur only when the operators can enter a vast new market. Until this year they did not possess the equip ment to handle more than the existing first-class traffic offering. That this market was so large as to represent a quarter of the population (no other nation has reached this proportion even in the tourist traffic era) has been due to the low-fare system operating in Australia. The 1,000-mile flight from Melbourne to Brisbane, for example, costs the sun-seeking Victorian holiday-maker £A17 12s by A.N.A. or T.A.A., or £A14 3s by Ansett's DC-3s. The 2,000-mile Melbourne-Perth flight ticket costs £A32 8s. On all these services, throughout Australia, first-class cabin service is given. This is the world's cheapest first-class air travel, but it has now reached its peak market potential. The year 1954 finds Australian airline operators settling down The Australian State air line, T.A.A., has ordered six Viscount 720s to sup plement its five Convair 240s. This Convair, pic tured at London Airport in 1948 during the de livery flight from San Diego to Sydney, is the aircraft in which the Queen recently flew from Williamstown to Casino. to purchase of new equipment to cope widi several national de velopments—tourist fares, the exploitation of oil and uranium in the remoter areas, and the steady population growth of more than 100,000 migrants a year. A.N.A.'s DC-6Bs went on the Eastern States services just before Christmas, while T.A.A.'s single DC-6, chartered from K.L.M. until Easter, helped the Convairs to deal wiui holiday traffic. From June, T.A.A. will start taking delivery of Vickers Viscounts for Australia's first internal turboprop services. As the traffic offering in the Eastern States is so large—the Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Hobart lane is one of the three highest-density air traffic routes on earth—the DC-6Bs will not go on the Melbourne-Perm route for several months, probably about June. This has disappointed Australian travellers, who have put up with non-pressurized aircraft on this 2,000-mile journey for too long. But A.N.A. will put their DC-6Bs on the Perth run after the T.A.A. K.L.M. DC-6 has left and while T.A.A. have no long-range pressurized aircraft to cope with that route. This will give A.N.A. passengers DC-6B comfort over all major routes. T.A.A. have yet to solve their trans-continental problem. The up-graded Viscount version may be the temporary answer, but this will most probably land at Forrest (halfway Adelaide-Perth) for refuelling. And Forrest on a summer day is something like Charga or the outskirts of Hades. The A.N.A. passenger will fly non-stop in a larger aircraft; many passengers prefer large aeroplanes with plenty of engines, just as the four-funnelled ships used to pull in the Indians. T.A.A. have yet to decide on their trans-continental type—the Comet, Britannia or DC-6/DC-6B/DC-7. They showed con siderable sagacity and courage in their successive Convair and Viscount orders, bom made before either type was in commercial operation. A.N.A., having shareholders to placate and the menace of a Labour Party pledged to destroy privately owned airline operation, simply cannot take such a risk. This fear was the main reason for their decision not to go on with their Viscount option. It is now the reason why their decision on Britannias, which their technical people admire, will be delayed until B.O.A.C. can show some real operational results. Both T.A.A. and A.N.A. face the tourist-traffic development
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