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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1514.PDF
14 October 1955 629 CIVIL AVIATION TOURIST FARES FOR AUSTRALIA BOTH A.N.A. and T.A.A. introduced tourist fares on theirMelbourne, Sydney and Brisbane routes on October 3rd. Australia is almost the last major country outside the Iron Curtainto introduce tourist fares on domestic routes. The explanation is, of course, that first-class air travel in Australia is, in general,less expensive than tourist travel in most other countries; con- sequently, the airlines are heavily patronized and the need toattract more traffic by means of fare-reductions has been less urgent. Single tourist fares will be as follows (first-class fares in paren-theses): Melbourne-Sydney, £A8 (£A9); Sydney-Brisbane, £A8 10s (£A9 10s); and Melbourne-Brisbane, £A16 10s(£A18 10s). The new low-fare services will be operated by 66-seat DC-4s; full meals will be served and the baggage allowance(35 lb) will be as on first-class flights. HUNTING-CLAN NETWORK REDUCED FOLLOWING recent reductions in the scale of operations by•*• Hunting-Clan Air Transport, Ltd., dismissal of 36 members of the company's staff was announced on October 3rd. Employeesaffected were three captains, two first officers, 22 stewardesses, five receptionists and four traffic staff. Developments leading to the dismissals were the non-renewalby the War Office of Hunting-Clan's Gibraltar trooping contract, which expired on September 30th; the chartering of three Vis-counts to Middle East Airlines; and seasonal cuts in the airline's northern network, centred on Newcastle. Flown by Hunting-Clan crews, the three Viscounts have beenoperating scheduled services in Middle East Airlines colours since October 2nd. They are expected to remain in the Middle Eastfor two years. Hunting-Clan's services from Newcastle to Paris, Hamburg,Copenhagen, Stavanger, Manchester and Glasgow are being dis- continued for the winter, though they are expected to resumein April. Services to London, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf are being maintained, and a new service to Belfast is being introduced.On the Newcastle-London route, Herons of Dragon Airways will be used in place of Hunting-Clan Vikings, since the capacity ofthe smaller aircraft is regarded as adequate for the traffic offering (passengers carried on the route last winter averaged 11 peraircraft). AER LINGUS MOVE "VTEW London offices for Aer Lingus, situated at 174, Regent*•* Street, were opened on October 7th by Mr. William Norton, Eire's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Industry andCommerce. In his opening speech, Mr. Norton said that negotia- tions between the British and Irish Governments for a revisionof the bilateral agreement between the two countries [which gives Aer Lingus a monopoly of the U.K.-Eire routes] were proceed-ing "in the most amiable way." Mr. Norton hoped that one result of the agreement would be an expansion of the Aer Lingus networkto include other British cities. It is believed that the revised agreement will provide for theoperation of B.E.A. services to Dublin. No immediate moves in this direction are expected, however, in view of B.E.A.'s presentshortage of equipment. Whether or not any of the British inde- pendent airlines will be permitted to operate to Eire remainsuncertain. METROPOLITAN ORDER-BOOK ORDERS have now been placed for 46 Convair 440 Metro-politans, and, according to the company's director of sales, "negotiations are being conducted with other foreign and domesticlines for new orders." Customers to date are Cities Service Oil Co. (one executive version); Continental Air Lines (three); Finnair(one); REAL, the Brazilian airline (four); S.A.S. (eleven); Sabena (twelve); Swissair (eight); and the U.S.A.F. (six C-131D militaryversions). Mr. A. W. Abels, of Convair's sales department, recently madea five-week tour of European airlines. On his return to America, he said that the companies he had visited were especially interestedin the Metropolitan but were faced with the problem of weighing two factors; one, he said, was "a tremendous advertising campaignbeing waged by British manufacturers," and the other was the "obvious reliability and proven performance of Convairs andother American-manufactured aircraft." Mr. Abels added: "A big factor also is availability. We can deliver." Two versions of the 440 are being offered by Convair—a 44-seater and a 52-seater. Those delivered to Sabena and Swissair will be convertible from low to high capacity by the addition oftwo seat-rows in the forward cabin area. As shown by the illus- tration overleaf, the Metropolitan differs little from its predecessor,the CV 340. According to the manufacturer, it will employ "new noise-suppression techniques developed by Conyair and a firmof acoustics consultants which give the Metropolitan the quietest passenger cabin of any modern transport aircraft." SABENA DEFICIT PRESENTING the 1954 annual report of Sabena Belgian Air-••• lines, M. G. Perrier, the chairman, last week announced a loss of £382,000. This compares with a loss of £170,000 in 1953and a profit of £240,000 in 1952. Passengers carried by the airline last year totalled 392,000, compared with 375,000 in 1953, andrevenue increased by 14 per cent. M. Perrier said that more than half the amount lost in 1954 was attributable to dead flying neces-sitated by detours round areas restricted by military authorities. In the previous year's annual report, the introduction of touristfares in Europe was blamed for the deficit. DERBY MARATHONS ACQUISITION of two ex-W.A.A.C. Marathons is announced• by Derby Aviation. The aircraft are G-AMGW (formerly VR-NAN) and G-AMHR (formerly VR-NAR); they will beintroduced to augment Derby Aviation's Dakota services on short-haul routes for both charter and scheduled runs. Next seasonthe company will be starting two new routes—Derby - Blackpool - Isle of Man and Derby - Birmingham - Ostend—and it is for thispurpose that the new machines are primarily intended. The Marathons, only examples of their type to be used by aBritish airline, are cleared for operation at weights up to 18,2501b, and as such may operate from aerodromes having 750 yd runways.This ability, it is hoped, will later enable them to operate a service from Derby through Elstree to the Isle of Wight. Derby Aviationare converting the machines from 18- to 20-seaters, and are carry- ing out C. of A. renewal in their workshops at Burnaston. MORE COMPETITION IN AMERICA *• /CHANGES in U.S. government air transport policy, as imple-^ mented by the Civil Aeronautics Board, are now being pre- dicted in America. The emphasis will be on an early reductionin the amount of subsidy paid to local-service airlines (most of the 13 domestic trunk lines are now self-supporting) and onincreased competition on many routes. Licences issued recently by the C.A.B. have increased thenumber of competing carriers on several major routes. T.W.A., Capital and Northwest, for example, have been approved to flynon-stop between New York and Chicago in competition with United and American. In addition, it is expected that some of the 15 local-service, orfeeder, lines will be awarded certificates to compete with the trunk carriers; by this means the C.A.B. hopes to reduce their need forsubsidy. "Public service revenues" paid to American airlines in the financial year ended June 30th, 1955, amounted to $55.7m(£20m), representing about 3 j per cent of total operating revenues. A sum of $48.5m (£17m) has been allocated for the two-yearperiod ending June 30th, 1957. ; According to Time, the new policy will also bring benefits tomany of the non-scheduled airlines. "In an initial decision, which the full board will probably follow, a C.A.B. examiner recom-mended that 27 of the weakest nonskeds be eliminated, but that the 33 survivors be permanently certified for a specific numberof scheduled passenger flights (possibly ten) each month, plus an unlimited number of non-scheduled flights. "All this means," concludes the American weekly, "that a newair age is coming for the U.S. As a result of the rapid expansion of routes and increased competition, dozens of new cities will betied into the air web. Instead of relying on planes largely for long-distance runs, U.S. travellers will soon be able to fly any-where they choose, day or night, and do it faster and cheaper than ever before." . -• COMET II HOME AGAIN ON Friday last, October 7th, seven days after its departurefor hot-weather and high-altitude trials in Africa, Comet 2 G-AMXD returned to Hatfield. The occasion provided a con-venient opportunity to review progress made with this version of the Comet since its adoption for Transport Command in Februarythis year. The number of aircraft ordered for the R.A.F. has not beenofficially stated. It may be assumed, however, that all will be conversions of civil airliners completed or advanced in construc-tion when the results of last year's investigation brought pro- duction to a halt. Their primary Service role, it is expected, willbe the operation of a high-speed service between Britain and the
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