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Aviation History
1958
1958-1- - 0278.PDF
282 FLIGHT, 22 August 1958 Super Constellation of Qantas Empire Airways, one of Australian airlines to have ordered Lockheed Electros. three Argonaut R.M.A. "Astraea" of B.O.A.C., operating under the colours of West African Airways and flown by B.O.A.C. crews. Air Transport in the Commonwealth . . . Empire Airways' re-equipment programme, which was narroweddown to a battle between the Comet and the Electra. Australia has a 50 per cent interest in T.E.A.L., and accusationshave been made in New Zealand that Qantas "bulldozed" T.E.A.L. into buying Electras although the majority of T.E.A.L.'s directorswere in favour of Comets. It is claimed that by chartering Electras to Qantas for some operations T.E.A.L. will, because of standard-ization with Australian equipment, obtain greater utilization than it could do with Comets. As far as I know it has not been disclosedwhether T.E.A.L.'s Electras will be maintained by Qantas. It has also been suggested in New Zealand that by increasing the sizeof the total Australasian Electra order a more favourable price per unit was obtained. Pakistan. There is little to report from Pakistan. PakistanInternational Airlines, now operating two flights a week to Europe, has somewhat modified its routing to this continent, and addedtwo more Super Constellations to its fleet. A fleet of three Viscount V.815s will soon be in operation, andapproval has recently been given for extension to Karachi Civil Airport to meet the requirements of large jet aircraft. South Africa. Main news from South Africa this year hasbeen the ordering by South African Airways of three Boeing 707-320s, and the opening by the airline of its service betweenJohannesburg and Perth. This route is via Mauritius and Cocoa - and its introduction was long delayed by a wrangle with Australia :about the South African company's Australian terminal. Australia ;• wanted S.A.A. to fly to Darwin, at which point its passengers were -to be transferred to an Australian carrier. South Africa refused tot consider this demand and insisted that Perth must be its terminal.;This was finally agreed and the route is now operated on alternate weeks by South African Airways and Qantas. Qantas has the -advantage of operating its service from Sydney via Melbourne and Perth, a facility which is denied South African Airways. ; West Africa. Numerous changes in the air transport opera- ;tions of the Commonwealth territories in West Africa have recently taken place, or will soon do so.The Gold Coast's emergence into the sovereign state of Ghana brought about the ending of cabotage rights on the routes linkingthe United Kingdom and Accra. This has led to the creation of a new Ghana airline and to alterations in West African services ofAirwork and Hunting-Clan Air Transport. While cabotage rights obtained, Airwork and Hunting-Clanworked Safari coach-class services between London and Accra with Viking aircraft, making two night stops en route. With thecreation of Ghana this service had to be withdrawn and the British independent airlines were granted rights for the operation oftourist-class services between the United Kingdom and Ghana. The new service was inaugurated on January 6 and Viscount air-craft are used. They make one night stop—at Las Palmas. At the beginning of July Ghana Airways were incorporatedto operate domestic, regional and international services. B.O.A.C. Associated Companies holds 40 per cent of the shares in GhanaAirways and the controlling interest is held by the Ghana Government. B.O.A.C. and Ghana Airways have signed a seven-year poolagreement for the operation of services between Ghana and Britain, and a weekly Accra - London service was started by Ghana Air-ways on July 16. B.O.A.C. provides a Stratocruiser and the crew for this operation but the aircraft bears the new company's nameand insignia and wears the Ghana flag. It is expected that Britannias will be used on this and the B.O.A.C. services to Ghanafrom next year. On October 1 Ghana Airways are due to take over operation ofthe country's domestic services and also certain of the West African regional services.This autumn West African Airways Corporation, which was formed by the four West African territories of Nigeria, Gold Coast,Sierra Leone and the Gambia and has its headquarters in Nigeria, will be re-organized as a company jointly owned by the NigerianGovernment, B.O.A.C. and the Elder Dempster shipping group. In addition to operating domestic and regional services, the newcompany will work with B.O.A.C. on the trunk route to London. This route is at present operated by B.O.A.C. aircraft, withW.A.A.C. markings, and with B.O.A.C. crews. It is also understood that the new Nigerian concern will continueto operate the internal services of Sierra Leone under contract to the Sierra Leone Government. Dragon Rapides operate the existingroutes, which total about 275 miles. West Indies. As with most Caribbean carriers, the recessionhas hit B.W.I.A. hard, although there has been an encouraging response to the extension of Viscount services throughout theregion. AIRLINE COMPETITION IN (continued from page 271) CANADA so that, in that year, if the percentage growths of traffic and aircraft sizewere applied to the 1957 figures, a transcontinental route Vancouver - Calgary - Regina - Winnipeg - Toronto - Montreal might reasonably beconsidered as having adequate potential to make unrestricted competi- tion worth while. The report sums up this conclusion as follows: — "The conclusion that the potential for airline competition in Canadais not likely to change from 1958 to 1961 but may materially change bv 1966 is not altogether surprising when one considers the general trendof development anticipated in transport aircraft in the next ten years. The airline industry faces, with the introduction of the big long-haul jetslike the DC-8 and Boeing 707 and the big short-medium haul turbopiops like the Vanguard and the Electra, a revolutionary change in the sizeas well as the technical nature of its mainline equipment. "Beyond 1961 it is to be anticipated (and sincerely hoped) that therewill be a period of stabilization in the aircraft used. The major problem of introducing airline competition in Canada therefore appears to bethat this change of policy is being contemplated at a time when it is very difficult for the industry to cope with this extra complication. Inthe'mid 1960s, however, it ought to be possible to extend competition with much less concern about its adverse economic consequences." The report then examines T.C.A.'s financial position and repeats thatunless competition were strictly limited it would almost certainly lead to an overall deficit. T.C.A.'s route system was divided into profitable. potentially profitable and non-profitable (social) routes. This showedthat any significant reduction in the profit of T.C.A.'s transcontinental routes would almost certainly cause an overall deficit. Discussing thesocial routes, which lost about $2.7 million in 1957, Wheatcroft makes out a strong case against "internal cross-subsidization," and states thearguments for Government subsidy of social routes: — "A policy of direct subsidy would make possible a new approach tolocal and regional operations. Small carriers can almost certainly per- form these at a lower cost than a major trunk-route airline. Hence T.C.A.might be relieved of some of its unprofitable social services if the Government agreed to subsidize local carriers on these routes. Anadditional consideration is that the present financial difficulties of most of the small airlines appear to make some assistance essential for theirsurvival. A review of the overall policy towards local and regional air services is required urgently." Finally, the report considers further aspects of competition, such asthe possibility of strictly limited licensing of carriers on certain domestic routes in order to improve existing international services; the grantingof licences to competing carriers to provide extra capacity at peak periods ("this kind of licence has worked successfully in the U.K."); and thepossibility that the prohibition of non-scheduled operations over scheduled routes might be withdrawn.
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