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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0642.PDF
6 March 1959 315 Comets for Argentina How Aerolineas Argentinas Plan to Use Their New Fleet A LTHOUGH Argentina's "chosen instrument" airline is tenHk years old this May, their de Havilland Comet 4 (the first X •*• of six) which was due to be delivered at Buenos Aires onMarch 2, is the first aircraft actually to be ordered by the airline since its formation. This apparent anomaly is explained by thefact that Aerolineas Argentinas was formed on May 14, 1949, by the merger of four existing companies, which between themhad ordered the aircraft that make up the present fleet. These were FAMA (Flota Aerea Mercante Argentina), ALFA (SociedadMixta Aviacion del Litoral Fluvial Argentino), ZONDA (Zonas Ceste y Norte de Aerolineas Argentinas) and Compania AeropostaArgentina, S.A. The newly formed airline was given a monopoly of all external and most internal services, and until recently itsonly competitor on internal routes was LADE (Lineas Aereas del Estado)—a branch of the Argentine Air Force which beganoperations in September 1940 and which operates domestic services, especially to isolated areas of the country where thetraffic is insufficient to permit economic operation on a com- mercial basis. It is no secret that Aerolineas Argentinas have lost money inthe past, but the airline's president, A. Cdre. Juan Jose Giiiraldes, recently had an interview with Dr. Frondizi, President ofArgentina, in which he discussed the airline's achievements, problems and future prospects. Aerolineas aims to achieveeconomic self-sufficiency in the coming financial year (1960-61) as the first step in its plans for expansion. Questioned by thePress after his interview with the President, A. Cdre. Giiiraldes revealed something of his airline's plans for acquiring new equip-ment for domestic and regional services: for the former, the Friendship and one of the turboprop versions of the Convair 440were being considered, while for the regional routes to neighbour- ing South American states the Caravelle was being studied. By M. J. HARDY Airline AerolineasAerolineas Air FranceAlitalia IberiaK.L.M. Lufthansa PanairPanair Panair S.A.S.S.A.S. Swissair Equipment DC-6 DC-6L-1049 DC-6B L-1049GDC-7C L-1049G DC-7CDC-7C, and L-049 DC-7C, and L-049 DC-7CDC-7C DC-7C Return Services Weekly one onetwo two onetwo two one one two one one one European Terminal London FrankfurtParis Rome MadridAmsterdam Hamburg LondonBeirut Frankfurt StockholmCopenhagen Zurich Aerolineas have, in fact, since placed an order for ten Fair-child F.27 Friendships with an option on ten more, and deliveries will begin by the end of this year. The airline's six DC-4s andfour Convair 240s will go to Fairchild in part-exchange for the Friendships, which would seem to be a very favourable arrange-ment for Aerolineas, and one that will encourage the option on ten more Friendships to be taken up; the Dutch-designed turbo-prop will certainly give Aerolineas an edge over their competitors in the domestic field. The question of what type would be chosento replace the DC-3, and when it could be introduced, has depended not least on the question of airports and the funds thatcan be made available to improve them. A. Cdre. Giiiraldes expressed his profound encouragement at the President's under-standing of air transport problems, "especially in respect of their economic and social importance," and these words may fore-shadow a fairly rapid improvement in the general standard of Argentine domestic airfields. The air commodore has also made the point that his airline'seconomic problems would be solved if it received half of the $30,000,000 or so spent annually in air travel in and out of BuenosAires; foreign airlines at present absorb almost all this sum, as the table in column 1 emphasizes. As can be seen, Aerolineas operate only two out of a total of18 return services a week from the Argentine capital to Europe, and are at present the only airline to offer no first-class accommo-dation on these services. Their competitors all fly more modern aircraft with combination first/tourist interiors, and sleepingaccommodation is available for first-class passengers on Air France, Alitalia, K.L.M., Panair do Brasil, S.A.S. and Swissairflights. All this would appear to place Aerolineas at an over- whelming competitive disadvantage, but for the fact that theyare able to offer the lowest fare between Buenos Aires and Europe: their London - Buenos Aires tourist return fare is£324 15s, or £41 15s less than that charged by the other airlines. This special tourist rate offered by Aerolineas on its Europeanservices is actually a differential in favour of the smaller, slower and less commodious DC-6, and was obtained by Aerolineasthrough the normal I.A.T.A. rate-fixing machinery. This rate, which will not apply when Comets are introduced, serves as aninteresting precedent for fare differentials between piston air- liners of varying degrees of modernity, as well as between turbo-prop and turbojet, and is one of several reasons why Aerolineas found it cheaper to go directly from DC-6s to Comets ratherthan purchase interim equipment such as DC-6Bs, DC-7Cs or L-1049s before introducing jets. After the downfall of the Peron regime in 1955 the policy ofabsolute State monopoly of Argentine air transport was relaxed, and a number of privately owned airlines are now operating;their activities were described in Flight for September 5, 1958. Indeed the pendulum swung away from monopoly to the extentthat Transcontinental, S.A., made plans for operating jets in association with California Eastern Aviation, Inc., a whole yearbefore Aerolineas Argentinas placed its order for six Comets, although the Comets will begin services about a year beforeTranscontinental's Convair 880s. Purchase of the latter is under- The first D.H. Comet 4 for export, due for delivery to Buenos Aires as this issue appears
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