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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0039.PDF
FLIGHT, 8 January 1960 39 more passengers—the inference being that more first-class seatswere offered than hitherto. In their Comet 4 the ratio is 24 first to 43 tourist, a denser configuration than that adopted byBOAC, although for both carriers 61 seats filled for the moment represents 100 per cent revenue load-factor. (In BOAC's Cometthis is because at the start of services supernumerary crews under- going route training will be carried; in the Argentinian Cometsthe configuration is identical with that used on overland services.) The number of seats could eventually be increased to 68, althoughmost tourist-class proving flight passengers would agree that they would prefer not to see an extra row of tourist seats added to thepresent layout. In BOAC's case these proportions between first- and tourist-class seats have been derived from the arrangement most suited to the aircraft and from the study of market conditions in SouthAmerica undertaken by the Corporation in June; inevitably they represent a compromise that will have to be assessed during thefirst months of service. Seats per week, one way on South Atlantic, Winter 1959 Airline BOAC Aerolineas Argentinas Swissair Air France ... Panair do Brasil Iberia AHtalia KLM SAS Lufthansa ... Weekly totals Average seats Services 2 Cow«t 2 Comet 2 DC-7C 3 L.1049G 2 DC-6C 3 DC-7C 1 L.1049G 2 DC-6B 2 DC-7C 2 DC-7C 2 L.1049G 23 — First- class 20 24 26 20* 12 12 16 12 24 24 22** 440 19 Tourist 41 43 29 34* 35 48 55 51 31 25 33*' 877 38 Seats per a/e 61 67 55 54 47 60 71 63 55 49 55 — 57 Seats p.w. 122 134 110 162 94 180 71 126 110 98 110 1,317 — Crossing Dakar-Recife Dakar-Recife Dakar-Rio Dakar-Rio Dakar-Recife Lisbon-Recife llha do Sal-Rio Ilha do Sal-Recife Lisbon-Rio Lisbon-Recife Dakar-Rio *Air France flights to Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo only; to Lima Air France offer 12 first-class, 44 tourist+ 4 beds. "Configuration is changed to suit bookings. tLater 3 services weekly Who travels? In studying traffic and travellers from SouthAmerica it is impossible to categorize so big a market. BOAC serve Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, each of which hasdifferent affiliations to Europe, contrasting interests and standards of living, and different political, cultural and economic back-grounds. But undoubtedly the most important markets for BOAC at the moment are Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil andBuenos Aires in Argentina. These are the great business centres of the South American continent and it is the carriage of businesstraffic to Europe and to the United Kingdom which must be the mainstay of the corporation's year-round load factor. It representsperhaps 30 per cent of the total uplift—just about the proportion, incidentally, of first-class seats in the Comet. Of the businesses inthese cities some are concerned with the production of motor cars under licence (Fiat, Volkswagen, BMC and Renault are active inSouth America), and the interchange of executives and technicians between the South American countries and the United Kingdom,German, French and Italian engineering industries account for an appreciable proportion of die total traffic flow. But pro-duction of cars is only part of the ebullient South American industry, so it is axiomatic that the better the trade relationsbetween the United Kingdom and South American countries the better our national carrier can expect to do. The remainingand largest category of travellers can be classified as those whose primary interest is tourism, sport, or the religious or culturalaffiliations of South America with other parts of the world—for example the close Brazilian connection with Portugal or the hometies of the half-million Japanese who also live in that country. There is also a tradition among the more wealthy SouthAmericans—just as there is among many inhabitants of the United States—that Europe should be visited at least once duringthe course of a lifetime. There is a major task here for the British Travel and Holidays Association—who have offices in BuenosAires and are represented in Rio—to encourage travellers to include London in their European itinerary; their campaign willnow be mounting for the peak travel season of late April to August and their effort should be given impetus by the introduction ofBOAC's services this January. But this (as BOAC's traffic manager at Rio and Sao Paulo was atpains to point out to the writer) is probably as far as generaliza- tions can go. "Brazil," he explained, "is a special case, because herethere is no middle class." The majority of the traffic consists of businessmen, and if the corporation had only Rio and Sao Pauloto consider the service might well take on a different aspect, with greater emphasis on high-speed, first-class travel.One other great market remains relatively untapped—the con- Behind the Panagra DC-4 is Buenos Aires' imposing terminal building siderable number of passengers who travel to and from the easternSouth American seaboard by sea. Many South American tourists, it is claimed, save hard to travel to Europe or the United States byair and then return by sea, bringing with them sufficient pur- chases to recoup part of the cost of their journey. These aretravellers who would benefit from economy-class travel, but as yet they are insufficiently numerous for South Atlantic promo-tional fares to have been seriously considered—this in spite of the Great South American Rate War in which discounts of up to50 per cent were offered. Earlier in this article the two questions posed were : Can BOAChope to operate its South Atlantic services at a profit? And why has this point in time been chosen for their re-introduction aftera lapse of five years? Having brushed in the the broad background to this vast South American canvas, we might now examine ingreater detail what the corporation has to offer on these routes, and what it may hope to gain. As already remarked upon, the schedule which will begin thismonth offers very little increase in capacity in a market that has expanded quite appreciably. In the past five-and-a-half years asteady effort has been made in keeping the name of BOAC before the South American public by operating off-line sales offices andby keeping up contacts and a flow of information from staff serv- ing in South America during the period when there were nooperations. Small though this effort has been in competition with the sales campaigns mounted by the other airlines on this com-petitive route, BOAC claim—with a good measure of justification —that the public image of the corporation has remained favour-able. But it must be added that on-the-spot confidence in what has been achieved over the past five,years varies considerably, andit is probably true to say that the two most pro-British, pro-BOAC countries are Uruguay and Chile—unfortunately also the smallestgenerators of traffic. To try to get the profit-potential of this service in perspectivea little arithmetic shows that the average sector-length on BOAC's South Atlantic service is the surprisingly low figure of 863 n.m.,since two ultra-short stages are included—Madrid to Lisbon (over which there are no traffic rights) and from Montevideo along theRiver Plate to Buenos Aires. Even the longest sector—Dakar to Recife—is only 1,725 n.m. Making some rather broad assump-tions about the ratio of BOAC's direct to indirect operating costs, the cost of Comet operation over this hypothetical stage, andComet earnings on the South American route (about £2.25 per aircraft n.m. on 100 per cent load factor) it seems that total costscalculated on a basis of twice ATA formula direct operating costs could be covered on load factors of about 50 per cent, althoughthis must be factored to bring it into line with BOAC's actual operating costs (which are believed to be somewhat higher) andby the promotional and establishment costs inherent in returning to the South American route. Initially these costs could welldemand a break-even load factor that would be out of reach over any sustained period. Apart from January 1960 being about the earliest date thatBOAC have had the capacity available to resume this service, there are two other powerful reasons why this period should bechosen. From this summer, the big jets are to be introduced on the South American routes by competitive carriers, and it is (continued on page 57") Measure of the Comet's pres- tige in South America: no Chilean airline operates the Comet, but it features never- theless on the nation's stamps
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