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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0679.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 May 1955 677 THE PARTY LINE ON AIRLINES Tories, Labour and Liberals Express their Views for "Flight" CONSERVATIVE VIEWPOINT (Put by J. D. Profumo, O.B.E.) A IR transport gives Britain new highways. Experience has£\ shown that a blend of public and private enterprise is •L M. best for this service. Close co-operation with shipping canoften be of great value. The airways Corporations, as stated in the Conservative Election Manifesto, will continue to have an importantrole; we shall ensure that their relationships with independent opera- tors are developed in the interests of traveller, trader and taxpayer. The steps taken to give greater opportunities to private enterprisehave not been allowed to impair the competitive strength of Britain's international services or undermine the internationalnetworks of B.O.A.C. and B.E.A. Since 1951-52, B.O.A.C., which made a profit of over £1 millionin 1953-54, has received no Exchequer grant. B.E.A. losses, incurred despite the introduction of new aircraft, are partly dueto indiscriminate introduction of tourist fares, for which the International AirTransport Association, and not B.E.A., is responsible.The Socialist Government showed bias against the independent operators. Thatthe latter managed to survive the period of Socialist administration was largely dueto such windfalls as refugee evacuation in India and Pakistan in 1947; the Berlin Air-lift in 1948; and additional trooping contracts due lo various overseas emergencies.Since 1948, independent companies have been allowed, as associates of one of the Corporations, to operate a number ofinternal services in the United Kingdom, short-haul services across the English Channel and other international services. TheSocialists limited these associate agreements to a maximum term of two years. In September 1950, the Socialist Government didextend the maximum period of the validity of associate agreements to five years. The normal period has become seven years, underthe Conservative Government, with a possibility of extension to ten years. The Conservative Government has consistently held thatnon-scheduled air charter services are mainly the domain of the independents. The Corporations have not been precluded fromcharter work, but have not maintained special aircraft for this purpose.As a result of Conservative policy, the independent operators are now permitted to play a fuller part, together with theCorporation, in all new civil aviation developments. The inde- pendents can now apply on equal terms with the Corporation forvarious services, including new overseas routes outside the Cor- porations' established networks; internal services which do notmaterially divert traffic from B.E.A.; "Colonial coach"-class ser- vices to any point in the United Kingdom dependencies, provided,among other things, that the services generate a new class of traffic; seasonal inclusive tours; and all-freight services whichwould not undermine the Corporations' existing services or those operated by associated independents. (Full details are to be foundin Hansard, House of Lords, December 5th, 1951; and a statement by Mr. Alan Lennox-Boyd, Hansard, May 27th, 1952.) Although the Corporation still fly about 96 per cent of thetotal scheduled services undertaken by United Kingdom operators, the Socialists have frequently alleged that the ConservativeGovernment is out to help the private operators by depriving the nationalized Corporation of legitimate traffic. In fact, the aimof the Conservative Government has been to redress the balance in civil air transport which the Socialists weighted unfairly againstthe independents. LABOUR'S POLICY IN the last few years Britain has taken the lead in the civilaviation field. New types of British aircraft have set the standard for the rest of the -vorld.A large part of the credit for this achievement must go to the publicly owned air Corporations, British Overseas Airways andBritish European Airways, which have been prepared to take the risks and incur the heavy development expenditures involvedbefore radically new types of aircraft can be introduced into regular service. But now, just when the Corporations are reapingthe gains from their enterprise, their prosperity is being under- IN less than a week, the General Electiontakes place. Though "Flight" is not con- cerned with politics in the popular sense ofthe term, the effect on aviation of political attitudes and actions is very much our con-cern. We accordingly invited the three prin- cipal parties to make "brief policy statements",which are printed here at unaltered length. mined, and their ability to make further contributions to Britishaviation progress threatened, by Government policies designed primarily to benefit private aircraft operators.The pattern for British civil air transport in the post-war years was set by the Labour Government's Civil Aviation Act of 1946»which established three Air Corporations (subsequently reduced to two by the amalgamation of British South American Airwayswith British Overseas Airways in 1949) having the exclusive right to operate scheduled air services widiin the United Kingdom, andto and from the United Kingdom. Provision was, however, made for private firms to operate scheduled services as "associates" ofthe Corporations where this would assist the latter in the efficient discharge of their functions. Charter work and air trooping wereopen to both the Corporations and private operators. In its essentials the 1946 Act was a continuation of the policyof the "chosen instrument" adopted by successive Governments for over twenty-five years. The case for it was well stated bySir Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air in the Tory Government of 1939, when introducing thesecond reading of the British Overseas Air- ways Bill. He said that it would provide"greater possibilities of progress and—par- ticularly what I think is so much needed—the development of a far-sighted long-range policy in British aircraft production. I amsatisfied that this cannot be attained in the face of the heavily subsidized competitionof today by private companies, which must quite properly have regard to the primary interests of the share-holders who own such companies. I submit that under the new Corporation national interests and national advance come first."Unlike Sir Kingsley Wood, the present Government has put the interests of shareholders in private companies before those ofthe nation. The changes in policy that it introduced in 1952 have removed the protection given to the publicly owned airCorporations in the expansion of their scheduled services, and discriminated against the Corporations in the freight and charterfields. Since 1952, the promotion of the private companies' interestsat the expense of the Corporations has proceeded apace. They have been given preferential treatment in the establishment of"all-freight" services and have been permitted to establish "Colonial coach" services. In theory the latter "generate a newclass of passenger traffic without material diversion of traffic from the normal scheduled services of any previously approvedU.K. operator." In practice they have materially diverted traffic from the Corporation's scheduled services; and when the latterproposed to meet the competition by offering a cheaper service the Minister would not permit them to do this. Insult is added toinjury by the Minister's demand that the Corporations shall sign "associate" agreements with firms which are granted licences tooperate Colonial coach or other regular services over particular routes. The legality of this requirement is doubtful, for it clearlycontravenes the intention of the Air Corporations Act, 1949, which defines an "associate" agreement as "an arrangement calculated tofurther the efficient discharge of the functions of the Corporation." Discrimination against the Corporations is carried even furtherby the Government's refusal to accept tenders from the Corpora- tions for long-term air-trooping contracts. If the Corporationstender, and their tender is the lowest, it will not be accepted. The contract will be given to a private charter operator to bolsterup private operation. Thus the Corporations lose valuable revenue and the public pay for the protection of private firms. Evenwith this favoured treatment, the private operators cannot provide modern aircraft for the work and the Conservative Governmenthas indicated that it will buy aircraft with public money for hire to private operators so that they can continue to enjoy the benefitsof this remunerative employment. Because of the Government's refusal to grant long-term troopingcontracts to the Corporations the problems arising from the replacement of aircraft employed on scheduled services by newertypes have been aggravated. B.O.A.C. has been forced to dispose of Hermes aircraft withdrawn from scheduled services, at a lossof over £2 million. One of the arguments advanced by the Minister in supportof Government discrimination against the Airways Corporations is that the Corporations are unable to compete effectively withthe independent operators for air trooping work. If this is the case the need to prevent them tendering in competition withprivate firms is not clear. However, the question of comparative
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