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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1502.PDF
21 May 1954 663 Route Regional:— Sydney-Melbourne New Delhi-Calcutta Auckland-Christchurch New York-Chicago Montreal-Winnipeg Amsterdam-Rome Trinidad-Barbados Intercontinental:— Sydney-London Sydney-Johannesburg Amsterdam-Curacao London-Johannesburg Paris-Saigon London-Nairobi ... Brussels-Leopoldville ,. London-New York .' Paris-Rio de Janeiro Distance (st. miles) 439 820 479 730 1,248 813 213 11,625 8.665 6.259 6,101 6,831 4,832 4,021 3,540 5,729 Fares per mile 1st 3.6 4.1 4.3 5.3 6.3 8.1 10.4 5.2 6.0 6.7 6.8 6.9 7.6 8.2 9.5 10.1 2nd 3.2 4.8 3.8 5.0 6.1 4.9 — 5.8 5.5 5.9 5.8 6.6 6.6 — 3rd — _ — — — — 5.5 4.5 — — from shipping, rail and coach companies ensures that the I.A.T.A. delegates will agree on the lowest fare compatible with operating costs. Airlines which operate both domestic and international services are sometimes able to cover short-haul losses by long-haul profits. A high proportion of European regional services are unprofitable, whereas the Atlantic, African and Far Eastern services, relatively speaking, make money. This attempts to show a paper profit. The blunt truth, on the basis of B.E.A.'s results, is that present equipment is incapable of showing any sort of profit on the overall network of British domestic routes, competing as it does with the densest pattern of surface communications—and some of the worst flying weather—in the world. Development of a large, efficient and reliable helicopter promises to change the picture entirely. Even so, the heli copter's inherently restricted ton-mile output makes it diffi cult to forecast big reductions in fares. Time-saving will be the main factor influencing the passenger who flies by helicopter in preference to land or sea. Arecent official survey* of European air transport, conducted by the Air Research Bureau on behalf of six airlines, found that the introduction of helicopters "should theoretically only influence about seven per cent of the present market." But in America some nine million passengers annually make air journeys on distances of 100-250 miles.* This is little more than a tenth of the total traffic within this band of stage- lengths, so there promises to be a big U.S. market for large passenger-carrying helicopters capable of efficient operation. The American industry is already off the mark with military prototypes capable of adaptation for airline service within the next few years. Two more unusual cabin layouts: an Eaglt Aviation Viking (left), with folding Paymaster seats to permit quick conversion of the interior for freighting duties; and the standard layout of B.E.A.'s 47-seat Viscounts, which employ both forward- and rearward-facing seats. is illustrated by B.E.A.'s £lm-plus loss compared with B.O.A.C.'s profit. Unless short-haul routes are heavily patronized and run with extreme efficiency a loss is almost inevitable. Where natural obstacles in the form of mountains or water result in slow surface travel, or where surface transport is under-developed for economic reasons, there can be an excel lent demand for an air service even on short routes. The cross-Channel ferry operated by Silver City Airways, which carried 100,000 passengers and 40,000 vehicles last year, is the perfect example. On Europe's busiest inter-city route, that between London and Paris, the per-mile rate (tourist) for a single fare is nearly 8d. Any efficient operator of modern aircraft, given the London-Paris monopoly, could probably halve this figure and still make a profit. If, however, all the profitable European routes were taken away from their present operators losses would soar and governments would have to dig still deeper into national pockets. B.E.A.'s chief executive has said that all his airline's routes of over 260 miles are profitable,4 while all shorter routes lose money. It might be argued that in such circumstances there is a strong case for a clear division, at least from the account ing viewpoint, of domestic and international traffic (most of the domestic routes are below 260 miles, whereas the average international stage is over 300). Under the persent system there is a possibility that development of international traffic will be held back (through increasing or pegging of fares) by Mail. Although the ton-mileage of mail flown annually by the airlines is only about a quarter of the freight traffic, it produces more revenue. Relatively generous payment for carriage of mail is a traditional method by which govern ments have encouraged the growth of air traffic. This can be considered as a form of subsidy or—from the operators' view point—as fair payment for valuable service, even though the rates are not normally based on the cost of carriage. The important point about airmail service is that it benefits the public as a whole and not only the person who can afford to fly himself or to consign freight by air. The actual weights involved in mail traffic are relatively small and the charges for transporting mail are widely dispersed over millions of users. For example, the proportion of the public who can afford to travel 3,000 miles at 5s 6d per ton-mile (about 6d per passenger-mile, the cost of a ticket being £75) is extremely limited; by contrast, there is practically no limit to the number who can afford to spend 5 id for sending a one-ounce letter the same distance at the same rate. Taking into account the saving of a week or more in time of dispatch, a higher rate is justified—and in fact is normally paid. Each government, through its postal authority, determines the rate paid for mail carried by its own airlines, usually on a ton-mile or ton-km basis. Mail originating in one country and carried by the airline of another nation is, however, paid for at a standard rate of four gold francs per tonne-kilometre—about 10s 2d per ton-
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