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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0643.PDF
316 FLIGHT, 6 March 1959 COMETS FOR ARGENTINA . . . stood to be conditional upon the arrangement of satisfactoryfinancing; if this condition is fulfilled, present indications are that the Convair 880s will enter service early in 1960 betweenBuenos Aires and New York. Transcontinental already operates B.A. - New York touristservices with 82-passenger L-1049H Super Constellations which stop at Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Caracas. Aerolineas are atpresent at a competitive disadvantage on this route in having to use the older DC-6s, which make more stops—at Rio, Belem(technical stop), Port of Spain and Havana on the Saturday service from Buenos Aires, and at Sao Paulo, Rio, Belem (technical) andPort of Spain on the Monday and Wednesday services from the Argentine capital. But—surprisingly perhaps—it is not Trans-continental who have succeeded in attracting traffic on this route from Aerolineas so much as the non-I.A.T.A. airlines operatingcut-rate services to Miami and New York up the west coast of South America. So to meet this non-I.A.T.A. competition (andnot, incidentally, because they use older aircraft dian other I.A.T.A. carriers on this route) Aerolineas again offer a specialtourist fare from New York, Havana and Port of Spain to South America, and vice versa; this fare is not, it should be emphasized,a differential in favour of the less competitive DC-6 but was established to meet non-I.A.T.A. competition. At $632.20 returnto New York, it is no less than $240.40 below the tourist return fare to New York charged by Transcontinental, and also byBraniff, Pan American, Panagra and VARIG. There is also a first-class Aerolineas fare applicable only on the New York - Portof Spain and Havana - Port of Spain sectors of the network, and vice versa. Thus of the two major Argentine airlines in direct competitionon the New York - B.A. route, it is the State-owned operator, curiously enough, and not (as one would expect) the independentwho offers cheaper fares in smaller, slower and less modern aircraft—a competitive situation that may well be unique. Alsounusual is the fact that Transcontinental, although not yet a member of I.A.T.A., charge the same fare on this route as all theother I.A.T.A. carriers except Aerolineas Argentinas, who seem- ingly undercut I.A.T.A. rates with their special tourist fare(though, like the European fare, this was obtained by agreement with other I.A.T.A. member-airlines). Transcontinental have nowintegrated their flight schedules with the Brazilian carrier Real, with whom they have a pool agreement on U.S. services. Real,incidentally, might be willing to take over some or all of the Argentine independent's Convair 880s if finance could not beraised for these aircraft, or traffic to New York proved to be insufficient to justify their purchase. Aerolineas' Comets will be introduced in two stages, the firstbeginning this year with three aircraft and the second in 1960. The first Comet service will be flown on May 25, which isArgentina's National Day of Liberation, and the first stage pro- vides for five flights (later seven) a week to Santiago in Chile, foura week to New York and two a week to Europe, to be operated by the first three Comets. The fourth Comet will be delivered inthe middle of 1960, followed at intervals by the fifth and sixth, and with these aircraft Aerolineas will begin the second stage ofComet operations by stepping up their New York services to a daily frequency, operating four times a week to Europe and adaily service to Santiago. The Comet will reduce the DC-6's flight time from Buenos Aires to New York from 26 hr 15 minto 11 hr 10 min, and will bring the Argentine capital within less than 24 hours of London. Aerolineas Comets will have accommodation for 24 first-classpassengers and 43 tourists. Styled by the well-known American firm of Charles Butler, the interior has light blue and brick redas its dominant colours. Slumberette-type seats are installed in the first-class compartments, and Aerogalley catering equipmentin the two galleys. Ekco storm-warning radar is fitted as standard. Aerolineas reckon that the higher frequencies which will bepossible with their 67-passenger Comets will, while maintaining good load-factors (the airline's DC-6s have 54-passenger interiors)match the competitive threat of Boeing 707s, Douglas DC-8s and Convair 880s operating into Buenos Aires in the nineteen-sixties;with seating for perhaps twice as many people, the bigger jets will have to be operated at a much lower frequency than Cometsto ensure similar load-factors. In this connection it is worth quoting what the de Havilland Gazette said in its August, 1958, Soon to be replaced by Comets: one of the Aerolineas fleet of five DC-6s issue orrthe appeal of a frequent service operated by Comets: "Not only can today's traffic be carried with fewer aircraft than arerequired using current types—which makes the capital cost less whiie offering a superior service—but as bookings grow neavier due to thehigh competitive passenger appeal, frequency can be increased economically. Frequency itself has a high passenger appeal andgenerates more traffic again." Another point in the Comet's favour is that its airfield require-ments do not come up against temperature/altitude limitations nearly as much as those of the big jets, and it will be able tooperate into such airports as Recife, Trinidad and Santiago which would impose economic penalties on the big jets. (It is, incident-ally, for South American use that PanAm are considering Comets.) Present plans call for an annual utilization of 3,240 hr for eachComet, and pending the completion of an engine overhaul facility at Buenos Aires the Avons will be overhauled by Rolls-Royceat Derby. Completion of this facility will coincide with the second stage of Comet operations, and Aerolineas will then over-haul their own Avons; they will, in fact, be the only company in South America to overhaul civil jet engines. Aerolineas' jet re-equipment programme involves only twocontracts: one with de Havilland for airframes and spares, the other with Rolls-Royce for engines and spares. Such things asground starter units (by Auto Diesels Ltd.), tractors (by David Brown) and all the other items of ancillary equipment necessaryfor a jet fleet are included in the "spares" category and are not bought separately by Aerolineas, but are procured by Rolls-Royceor de Havilland with the airline's approval. This is obviously a simpler arrangement for a comparatively small airline thanevaluating and buying each item separately as the larger U.S. and European carriers do. Over 150 Aerolineas personnel of allcategories, ranging from flight dispatchers to captains, are at present on various technical courses at de Havilland and Rolls-Royce. A total of 30 pilots, consisting of three crews of ten pilots each, are being trained; most of them have been flying DC-6s,but some are graduating from DC-4s. Similarly, three crews of flight engineers (who will also be trained as pilots) are undergoingComet conversion courses. As mentioned earlier, the question of airports is a dominantfactor in Aerolineas Argentinas' DC-3 replacement plans at the moment, for although the airline's choice has fallen on theFriendship, there must necessarily be an interim period in which the airport improvement programme is getting under way, andduring this period—and possibly for some time afterwards—the present fleet of seventeen DC-3s will be retained. When someprogress has been made in improving the present large number of DC-3-category airports to take larger and heavier aircraft, theFriendship route network can be extended, but present plans envisage that the turboprop will be used initially as a Convair 240and DC-4 replacement rather than for superseding the DC-3s. The five DC-6s will be put on to regional services to neighbouringSouth American states—including a new one to Brazil's future capital, the inland city of Brasilia—and will also take over themore important domestic routes such as that to San Carlos de Bariloche, the well-known skiing resort in south-west Argentina.It is thought that there will be enough traffic on such routes to support the larger aircraft; flights from Buenos Aires to Bariloche,for instance, are often fully booked up two or three months ahead of the peak of the holiday season. Load factors on Aerolineas' domestic services during the years1950-56 have been exceptionally high; the figure for 1950 was 83 per cent and the lowest for any of these years was 75 per cent.February is the peak month for domestic routes, for the load factors for this particular month in 1957, 1956 and 1955 were, at92 per cent, 89 per cent and 84 per cent respectively, the highest of any month in the year. One of the reasons for these high per-centages is the inadequacy of surface transport, particularly railways. , But although the DC-3's ability to land virtually anywhere, anato make full use of the country's at present inadequate airports, makes it virtually indispensable to Aerolineas at present, thereare some parts of the country where there are no aerodromes at all, particularly along the River Parana route from Buenos Airesto Asuncion which the airline's six Short Sandringhams operate. And because of this lack of aerodromes, the airline plans to reamthe six Sandringhams for this route, even though they are no longer economical; some of them have now been in servicewitnAerolineas and its predecessors for no less than 13 years. T"es^ boats have a variety of interiors, accommodation in each -.aseaveraging about 50 passengers. They also operate between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and are still popular with passengers-The Sandringhams may remain in service for quite a few yea* yet, although new economic developments in Argentina, in V™~ticular the exploitation of oilfields, will eventually render '-•«» obsolete by providing funds for new aerodromes to cateiAerolineas Argentinas' growing domestic traffic.
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