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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0737.PDF
FLIGHT, 31 May 1957 743 IRISH BIRTHDAY 'Twenty-one Years a-growing": Aer Lingus Celebrate 21st Anniversary IN Ireland, economic considerations and political events haveencouraged the State to intervene actively in some branches ofcommerce. The state-sponsored air companies, Aer Rianta and Aer Lingus, are examples of the intermarriage of Governmentdevelopment of civil aviation and sound commercial policy. The success of this system is shown by Aer Lingus, which since 1936has grown from a single-route airline operating one aeroplane into an important network, with an international reputation forreliability and efficiency, operating five Vickers Viscounts and 13 Douglas DC-3s. During its twenty-one years of operations, Aer Lingus hastransported over three million passengers and lifted over 55,000 tons of freight and mail, 90 per cent of which have been carriedover the last ten years. The Aer Lingus system is of an extremely short-haul nature and the company has more than its fair share ofthe problems usually confronting this type of operator. It would, indeed, be difficult to find a scheduled airline anywhere which hassuch an immense "peak and valley" demand for service. In order to avoid the three valleys—night, mid-week, and winter—incentivefares have been introduced on some routes and have succeeded in some degree in reducing the unbalance. In 1936, Aer Lingus started operations in a modest way byproviding a daily return service between Dublin and Bristol, using a D.H.84 Dragon seating five passengers. At that time the entirestaff of the company numbered 12 people, and all the spares were contained in a large biscuit-tin! Today, the aircraft fleet is 18times as great, and the Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta staffs comprise 2,000—including seven of the original dozen. By internationalstandards, Aer Lingus is still a small airline, but it has built up a fine reputation for efficiency, regularity and safety of operations,as reflected by the fact that in 1950 it was awarded the Cumber- batch Trophy by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators ofthe British Empire. The smallness of the company is in itself an advantage, for there is an unusually friendly approach and personaltouch to its relations with the travelling public—factors which appear all too rarely in many of the larger organizations. Aer Lingus is a subsidiary of Aer Rianta, which was establishedto maintain external and internal air services, to develop air naviga-tion and to foster aeronautics in Ireland. Aer Rianta is not itself .anoperating organization, though for the last 17 years it has managedDublin Airport on behalf of the Minister of Industry and Com-merce. The revised Anglo-Irish AirAgreement of 1936 provides for an Aer Rianta holding in Aer Lingusof 90 per cent, with British Euro- pean Airways holding the remain-ing 10 per cent. Between 1946 and 1956 Aer Lingus had a monopolyof all services between the Republic of Ireland and the United King-dom, but now B.E.A. or British independent operators share someIreland/U.K. routes with Aer Lingus, whilst other routes areexclusively operated by Aer Lingus or by independent operators. AerLingus now have fifth-freedom rights at Manchester on routes toAmsterdam/Dusseldorf, Brussels/ Frankfurt and Zurich/Rome. (Upper) The first Aer Lingus aircraft, D.H. 84 Dragon "Mar" (Eagle), pur- chased in May 1936. (Lower) Bought in the summer of 1936, D.H. 86A Express "Eire" flew on Aer Lingus routes for over ten years. An early Aer Lingus poster (summer, 1936), showing a D.H. Dragon in the livery of Blackpool and West Coast Air Services, in conjunction with whom Aer Lingus operated certain routes. IRISH SEA AIRWAYS »—U»i». Man * WIST COMT AIR «HVICO Lm REGULAR DAILY SERVICES . „ IN COHKMT/UU CUM TWIN IMOMID AM LMIM CONNKT1NC With- UBLIN- Operational History. In addition to the original daily returnservice between Dublin and Bristol, inaugurated on May 27, 1936, seasonal routes were operated to the Isle of Man and Liverpool,in conjunction with Blackpool and West Coast Services, and the Dublin/Bristol service was extended to London later in the sameyear. All services were suspended on the outbreak of war in September 1939. In October of that year the Liverpool route was re-opened, andthis service operated right through the war years. Manchester was used as the terminus between August 1940 and November1942. In spite of wartime difficulties, a total of over 41,000 passengers were carried between 1939 and 1945, and January 1940saw the opening of the new Dublin Airport at Collinstown, about 5j miles north of the city. Like most airline operators all over the world, Aer Lingusexpanded rapidly at the end of hostilities, but it was some little time before the route pattern was finalized and suitable equipmentchosen. In the year 1945-46, over 21,000 passengers travelled on the services to London, Paris, Shannon and Liverpool. Forthe next twelve months the company concentrated on these four routes, replacing the de Havilland aircraft with DC-3s. In 1947, no fewer than eight new routes were opened—fromDublin to Amsterdam, Belfast, Glasgow, Brussels and Manchester; from Shannon to London and Paris; and from Belfast to Liver-pool, using Viking V.634s. Constellation L.749s (on hire from Aer- linte, the projected transatlantic company) were introduced onthe Dublin-London service and on a new Dublin-Rome service.
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