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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0889.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 June 1958 907 Side-by-side, participat- ing in a British Common- wealth occasion, are seen the representative com- mercial jet airliners of America and Russia—the Boeing 707 and Tu-104. They were at Vancouver on June J5 on the occa- sion of the British Columbia Centennial Aviation Show. CIVIL AVIATION . . . devaluation will not affect the price paid by Westerners for airfares to the U.S.S.R. Fares paid by Russians coming to Western Europe are to bs increased sharply, however—that from Moscowto London rising from 1,600 to 4,200 roubles. A curious potential anomaly is that fares within the U.S.S.R.and to other Iron Curtain countries will remain unchanged. This could mean that Russians flying to Western Europe will find itcheaper to break their journey ticket-wiss at Prague or Budapes; (in the same way that Manchester businessmen have untilrecently been breaking their journeys to London at Birmingham, thus saving two guineas on the nine-guinea return fare). Thegovernmental character of Russian air traffic will militate against widespread resort to such "capitalist intrigues" and will alsoprevent a repetition of that sad condition being experienced in the U.S., whereby traffic volume falls in response to a fare increase.The Dutch and Soviet Governments have seized this appro- priate moment to conclude an air agreement providing for anAmsterdam - Moscow service. Starting on July 21, K.L.M. DC-6Bs and Aeroflot Tu-104s will each offer a once-weekly ser-vice, K.L.M. flying via Warsaw and the Russians operating non- stop.Expecting further increases in air traffic, Marshal Zhigarev is already negotiating in Paris for a direct service between the French and Russian capitals, and he is shortly expected to open discus- sions with the West German Government for a Moscow- Frankfurt service. REPORTING TO THE PUBLIC THERE are few basic industries in the world in which membersof the general public are so interested as in air transport.Not only is this a reflection on the glamour of flying to strange places abroad, but also a result of the amount of public moneythat has been poured into the provision of air services. For these reasons it is appropriate that airlines should seek to give the publicas full a picture as possible of their activities. No media are better suited to this end than the annual report and the airline timetable.The two British corporations have an unequalled record in respect of their annual reports. But the publication by B.O.A.C.last year of a "popular" shortened version of their accounts suggests that insufficient attention has in the past been paid to presenta-tion. The Japanese belief that even the finest food will suffer from a poor setting is apparently well understood by K.L.M., tortheir latest accounts are a good example. The content provides not only a comprehensive picture of the airline's activities, but alsogives details of an unusually frank nature (obsolescence policy, long-term debt, capital commitments). Even more significant isthe attitude that appears to pervade every page of this report: that air transport is a business in which K.L.M.'s main aim is to make a TheYjutch airline has also scored a hit with its latest timetable. The floppy pamphlet of the past has been replaced by a firm, magazine-style, packet-sized, indexed booklet. The new format 3ed from two years' study by K.L.M.'s schedule-planning division. Both prospective travellers and travel agents will cer- tainly be influenced by this publication's ease of reference and attractive appearance. WHO FLIES IN EUROPE A YEAR or two ago B.E.A. initiated a comprehensive investiga-tion into the characteristics of the British flying (and non-fly- ing) public. That survey, carried out by Market InformationServices, Ltd. (a subsidiary of Colman, Prentis and Varley— B.E.A.'s advertising agents) was based on the information providedby representative sections of London and Birmingham society. A keynote was the distinction between various social classes insuch matters as attitudes to flying, holiday habits, and expenditure on holidays. Possibly the most significant finding was the num-ber of people who can afford to fly, yet continue to use surface transport. A surprising feature was the large number who have nointention of flying. B.E.A. has deservedly acquired a good reputation for keepingthe public in the picture; and in the case of this survey a wide audience, including travel agents and professional marketresearchers, has been informed of the findings. Unfortunately, the same cannot yet be said of the comprehensive survey recentlycarried out on cross-Channel traffic last summer between Britain and France. This review was sponsored by the British Travel andHolidays Association and the French Government Tourist Office, and covered the traffic carried by the nationalized cross-Channelshipping services and by Air France, B.E.A., Silver City and Skyways. Conflicting interests of the participants—a factorabsent from B.E.A.'s own enquiry—is probably the factor pre- venting a more complete dissemination of data, only the mostgeneral details being given in the summary published recently by the B.T.H.A.Traffic carried in the period covered by the survey, the third quarter of 1957, corresponds to 50 per cent of the year's total. Astraffic between France and Britain accounts for almost one-half of passenger movement between Britain and the Continent, and one-third of all traffic in and out of Britain (on a passenger-mile basis these proportions would, of course, be considerably lower), thesurvey merits close examination. Total U.K. - France traffic last year was estimated at 3m passengers and almost im cars, air ser-vices being estimated to account for about one-third of the passengers and one-sixth of the cars. Of the 500,000 British and100,000 French travellers on this route, 1,500 and 750 were interviewed respectively.Taking each group separately, the British travellers displayed fairly clear characteristics: they were primarily on pleasure bent(89 per cent of total); they usually planned to stay in France (46 per cent in that country alone, 38 per cent in France togetherwith other countries); they would be abroad for an average stay of 16 days; they were primarily (76 per cent) "non-manual byprofession; they were regular visitors to the Continent, rather more than half having been there three times before, with jhebalance split evenly between newcomers and old-timers with at least six visits to their credit; they tended to arrange their owntravel, although the number of "inclusive tourists, at present only numbering one in four, is growing at an even more rapid rate;and they spent about £50 per person on their holiday (inclusive- tourists averaged £65, others £44, the high figure for inclusivetourists reflecting the fact that they tend to travel farther abroad). The French group followed a rather different pattern.Students(?) appeared to account for 60 per cent of travellers (against less than one per cent for the Britons). Two-thirds wereunder 24 years of age, and nearly one-third gave family incomes over Fr.2m (only 12 per cent of the British group gave familyincome to be over the roughly equivalent figure of £2,000), and two-thirds were only on their first or second visit. Over one-third gave improvement of their English as a reason for travelling. Expenditure averaged Fr. 37,000 over a period of four weeks, adaily average of about Fr. 1,400 as against £3 for the British group. Visitors to Shorts, Belfast, on June 17, where they inspected Britannia and Canberra production, and the SCI VTOL research aircraft, were BEA's chairman and his wife, Lord and Lady Douglas They are seen here with Capt St J. Fancourt of Shorts (left), and Mr. R. E. Harvey, the company's general manager and joint deputy managing director.
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