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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0090.PDF
90 FLIGHT, 15 January 1960 AIR COMMERCE SILVER CITY'S RAILWAY ASSOCIATIONS ¥ AST week—in what might be construed as the first major•*-* surrender of rail to air competition—it was revealed that the British Transport Commission had for some while beennegotiating with Silver City for the purchase of a minority share in the independent airline. The capital of Silver City is atpresent jointly held by the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Naviga- tion group (70 per cent), Eagle Star Insurance (20 per cent) and10 per cent by Cable and Wireless. The last-named is a Govern- ment-owned concern; a fact not lost on those seeking a precedentfor the participation in an independent airline by a company with public accountability. Nevertheless, participation on this scale by the public com-mission responsible for the operation of the British railway system is unprecedented, but appears welcome both to Silver City andto the BTC for the possibilities it offers in expansion of rail-air services; not only to the Continent but possibly elsewhere in andfrom the United Kingdom. The immediate effect of such an association must be to diminishthe competition which airline and railway ferry operator present to each other on the short Channel routes to the Continent. Whilethe vastly greater proportion of cross-Channel traffic is still carried by sea, the latter's share is in decline. In terms of accompaniedcars carried (see "Channel Air Ferries," Flight, March 21, 1959) the sea share of the total cross-Channel ferry traffic fell from84 per cent in 1956 to 80.5 per cent in 1958. Last year was another of ebullient growth for the air ferries—Silver City carried 76,000cars and 200,000 passengers—and it is fair to assume that although the total level of cross-Channel traffic increased markedly overthe recessional year of 1958, the trend continued for the share of railway ferry business to decline. Under its terms of constitution the British Transport Commis-sion are now precluded from the direct operation of air services, but they are empowered, nevertheless, to collaborate with airlinesif they want to do so. Already under discussion in this context is the rail spur to Manston (and on the French side, to Le Touquet)to assist the operation of Silver City's rail-air-rail Silver Arrow Service to Paris, which has been in operation in conjunction withBR since June. From a collaboration of rail and air transport might also comepressure from Silver City for a substantially greater part in the operation of internal air services. Silver City's employed capital isof the order of £3 million; injection of new funds might be used to increase the airline's bargaining power in the processes ofmerger urged by Mr Duncan Sandys, Minister of Aviation. In the long term the airline's competitive position vis a vis otherindependent operators could thus be immensely strengthened by its railway associations. AIR UNION'S INAUGURAL POSTPONED TPHE work of Air Union's various study committees has had as-•- its aim the inauguration of unified operations by April 1; but owing to unforeseen complexities in many legal and financialproblems it seems inevitable that the executive committee will have to postpone the Union's inauguration until November 1—a change of plan that was decided by the committee last month. Such a postponement, it is said, will permit a closer study of AirUnion's problems and should ease the inevitable teething troubles For the Prime Minister's journey to Africa last week BOAC made available the specially modified Britannia 102 "Bravo Bravo." Part of the super-VIP interior is seen in this photograph ~- ..;;._•?• likely to arise in the first few months of combined operations.Whatever the final decision, operational unification of the four companies during the summer of 1960 will be preceded bybilateral and multilateral agreements to widen the scope of each partner's activities during the period immediately preceding thestart of joint operations. In the meantime, Government legal experts from the four AirUnion countries of Belgium, France, Germany and Italy have had a series of meetings with representatives of the four member-airlines to decide how best to draw up a pact of association in conformity with the national legal codes of the partners; it seemsthat the basis of solution is to be a treaty concluded by the four governments. Agreement on an advanced draft of this documenthas a'ready been reached. As has been previously described, the foundation work of AirUnion is being conducted by a number of special committees. Brief reports on their respective recent activities are as follows: The Executive Bureau has confirmed proposals of the ProgrammeBureau on the unification of Air Union services to the west coast of the United States. Los Angeles and San Francisco, it has been decided,will be served by Air France and Lufthansa. This bureau has also approved the design of the Air Union insignia and the aircraft livery. Thj Commercial Committee has continued preparation of a joint timetable as well as a joint "fares and regulations manual." The Commercial Organization Group is engaged in a progressivere-organization of the partners' out-stations. As a general rule com- panies wishing to start new stations will use the already establishedoffices of other member companies or will move into joint premises. For example, Lufthansa have recently moved into the Lisbon officesof Sabena. The International Relations Committee met for the first time inNovember. Its task is to draw up a full list of each company's traffic rights and to formulate a common policy for employing existing rightsand retaining new ones to the advantage of Air Union. The Helicopter Working Party has been asked to produce a detailedsurvey of all new rotating-wing aircraft projected between now and 1965. The first meeting was held in Brussels in November. "OUR OBLIGATIONS TO AIR UNION" DISCUSSIONS between Air France and El Al on an exchangeof passenger traffic on the routes between New York, Paris and Tel Aviv have ended in discord. Israeli newspapers haveattacked France, claiming that the negotiations reached an untimely end because of the French need to improve relations withArab governments. Subsequently Air France issued a statement denying that the breakdown had political roots and stating thatonly commercial matters were involved. "It appeared during the negotiations," said the airline, "that they interfered with theeventual new obligations of Air France towards its partners in the Air Union commercial co-operative body now being consti-tuted between Lufthansa, Sabena and Alitalia. At the present stage of the negotiations being conducted for the birth of AirUnion it did not appear possible to take on new commitments towards an exterior company." The objective of many months' negotiations has been apparentlyto evolve a Franco-Israeli agreement whereby El Al could increase its weekly Britannia service between Tel Aviv and Paris in returnfor the carriage across the Atlantic by Air France 707s of passengers to and from destinations in Israel. This is the first time that theinfluence of Air Union in traffic horse-trading has been publicly evident. LEEDS/BRADFORD AIRPORT G RADUALLY, the future layout of the terminal building, apronand airline maintenance facilities at Yeadon is taking shape. There is a great deal of derelict and unwanted building, datingfrom earlier Ministry of Aircraft Production and Royal Air Force tenancies, which will have to be removed before any practicalcommercial aircraft-handling system can be achieved. Under present conditions, not more than four aircraft of DC-3size can be satisfactorily handled simultaneously from the parking apron in front of the main hangar. Two of the five bays of thislarge hangar, built by MAP during the war to accommodate Lancasters and Yorks awaiting flight-testing, are to be demolishedThe remaining bays will more than fulfil future airline maintenance accommodation. Behind this hangar is a large paved area whichwill be further enlarged by demolition of two condemned hangars. When this paved open space is available as a terminal area, thereshould be room for stands for a dozen or more aeroplanes of DC-3 or Avro 748 size. The new terminal building will be built at theairport approach-road end of the "new" at>ron and, presumably'' the present temporary terminal-building will be demolished. Thereis now tangible evidence of Yeadon's renaissance, for installation of threshold and runway lighting is well under way. This she iWbe complete by the time the summer schedules start in April.
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