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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0508.PDF
524 FLIGHT, 18 April 1958 HOW BIG IS A BIG AIRLINE? By JOHN SEEKINGS TO be the world's biggest airline is a title claimed by not a fewcarriers: Air France claims to be the world's largest airline;B.O.A.C. states that it is "the world leader in air travel." Even within the United Kingdom violent arguments rage as towhich is the "biggest" British independent operator. How is airline size measured? Various claimants to the title usually measure their size againstone of five yardsticks: number of aircraft, number of employees, extent of unduplicated route network, volume of traffic carried orvolume of capacity provided. There are other standards such as the value of capital locked up in the airline or total annual revenue,but the value of these is somewhat impaired by the vagaries of currency exchange rates. The number of aircraft in a fleet is probably the least significantmeasure of its size. But airlines boasting fleets of over 100 aircraft must have some claim to be big. Such a club would recruit itsmembers from the following list: American (206), T.W.A. (192), United (185), Eastern (154), PanAm (135), Air France (132), B.E.A.(113), Real (Brazil) (110), Capital (105). Not quite eligible would be K.L.M. (92) and Indian Airlines Corporation (92). It is strangethat this list is only slightly shorter than that covering airlines with 50 to 100 aircraft: in addition to K.L.M. and I.A.C., this wouldinclude B.O.A.C. (83), T.C.A. (79), Delta (79), Sabena (78), Braniff (73), Pacific West (71), S.A.S. (61), LOT (54), Northwest (50) andNational (50). Total employment is probably the most misleading of yardsticks.Some carriers show an annual average figure, others use the year- end total. In some airlines (here unnamed) non-European labouris excluded. Agents are occasionally classed as employees. And where air transport is only one of a company's activities, a break-down of staff is always arbitrary. But allowing for—or rather, over- looking—these complications, it is possible to compose a pictureshowing the world's airlines placed in order of employment (shown to nearest thousand). At the top comes PanAm (25), then American,United and T.W.A. (each 20), followed by Air France and B.O.A.C. (earh 19). There is then a drop to K.L.M. (17), and a further fallto Eastern (14). These eight are the giant employers in the industry. The next ten are S.A.S. and B.E.A. (each 11), T.C.A. (10), I.A.C.(9), Sabena and Capital (each 8), Real (6), Qantas, Delta and North- west (each 6). Of all these, Pan American employs the most pilots(1,720) and Qantas the least (250). The proportion of pilots to total staff ranges from 11 per cent for Capital to 3 per cent for Air Franceand I.A.C. It is significant that for all the above North American airlines the proportion of pilots to total staff is above 7 per cent,while for all of the other airlines the proportion is below 6 per cent. A typical proportion for the large European carriers is 4 per cent. Unduplicated route network is an even more arbitrary figurethan total employment. Airlines, prompted by publicity depart- ments, tend to interpret the word "unduplicated" in somewhatliberal terms. For instance, one route from London to New York direct and another from London to New York via Boston mightprovide the basis for an allegedly unduplicated route network of 7,000 miles. U.S. carriers have to conform with fairly rigid C.A.B.definitions: thus PanAm declares a network of 64,000 miles, T.W.A. of 35,000 miles and Eastern (the next biggest U.S. carrier),17,000 miles. By contrast, the larger non-American operators claim quite astronomical figures (shown to nearest thousand miles): AirFrance 173, K.L.M. 159, S.A.S. 120, B.O.A.C. 85, Sabena 77, Swissair 72 and Real 70. There is then a sharp drop down to agroup of seven carriers (Aerolineas Argentinas, Avianca, B.E.A., Panair do Brasil, T.A.A., T.C.A. and Varig) each of which claimroute-networks in the order of 30,000 miles. The volume of traffic carried is probably the most valid of allstandards, and on this basis American stands out clearly as the world's largest airline, closely pursued by United, Eastern, PanAmerican and T.W.A. Each of these five companies carried about 500 million ton-miles of traffic last year. The largest non-U.S.airline, Air France carried only half this amount (245m ton-miles). Then comes a group of nine carriers, each of which transportedbetween 100 and 200m ton-miles in 1957. Of these, five are in North America (Delta 170m, Capital 157m, Northwest 156m,T.C.A. 147m and National 102m) and four are in Europe (B.O.A.C. 189m, K.L.M. 180m, S.A.S. 127m and B.E.A. 100m). These 15leaders stand in a class of their own. Trailing some way behind come four carriers each of whichlifted about 75m load ton-miles last year: Sabena (83m), Western (75m), Swissair (71m) and Real (precise figure unknown). Therefollows another gap between these airlines and a cluster about the 50m load ton-mile mark: Avianca, Alitalia-L.A.I., T.AA., Ansett-A.N.A. and Mexicana. Below this level come the many airlines that may, in terms of total traffic, be described as "medium-sized." Volume of Traffic The size-pattern that emerges from a study of total traffic doesnot correspond to that for each separate class of traffic. In the case of passenger-miles, the list of the biggest airlines correspondsto that of the 15 "giants," although the order is slightly different. The biggest airline is still American, this company last yearbecoming the first to carry over 5,000 million passenger-miles in a twelve-month period. Broadly speaking, those airlines (such asCapital) which concentrate on passenger traffic move up a few places on the list, while those which carry a large proportion ofnon-passenger traffic drop their positions. B.O.A.C. is the seventh largest carrier in terms of total ton-miles of traffic, but lies tenthin terms of passenger-miles, being eclipsed by Capital, Delta and T.C.A. Similarly, K.L.M. drops from eighth to eleventh place. If airlines are graded according to number of passengers carried,the picture is even more different. In 1957 Eastern just managed to oust American from its leading place, both carriers attractingover eight million patrons to their services. As might be expected, the short-haul airlines here show to best effect. Capital's annualtraffic of almost four million passengers brings that airline up to fifth position behind the "Big Four" (American, Eastern, T.W.A.and United). Even more remarkable, B.E.A. comes up to eighth position, its passenger traffic exceeding that of Air France. Con-versely, the long-haul carriers topple. K.L.M. carries slightly under one million passengers in a year while B.O.A.C. does notpick up as much as half a million passengers, its total being less than that for the larger U.S. local-service carriers such as NorthCentral, Mohawk, Allegheny and Piedmont, and only slightly greater than that for Aer Lingus- When the volumes of airline freight and mail traffic are com-pared, yet another picture of airline size emerges. Here the long- haul carriers gain most in size. In the case of airfreight, Americanand Pan American dead-heat, each just failing to lift 100m ton-miles annually. Flying Tiger—the U.S. domestic all cargo carrier—wasresponsible for 83m ton-miles last year (this included 28m non- scheduled traffic), and United came fourth with 67m. Eight airlinescarried between 25m and 50m freight ton-miles in 1957. Slick (50m), K.L.M. (42m), T.W.A. and Air France (each 42m), B.O.A.C.(35m), Avianca (estimated at 35m), Riddle (32m) and Ansett- A.N.A. (estimated at between 25 and 30m). Although the global volume of airmail is only about one-quarterthat of airfreight, the rates at which it is carried—usually about four or five times higher than freight rates—ensure that this trafficis highly regarded by world airlines. As overwater international carriers derive particular benefit from mail, the list showing thebiggest mail carriers is strangely lacking in U.S. domestic trunk operators. Only twelve airlines carried over five million mailton-miles in 1957, of which the biggest was PanAm (37m), the others being United (30m), T.W.A. (24m), B.O.A.C. and American(each 20m), Northwest (17m), Air France (15m), Eastern (12m), Qantas and T.C.A. (each 9m), K.L.M. and S.A.S. (each 7m). By most recognized standards American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. domestic trunk carrier, is the world's biggest airline.
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