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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0148.PDF
148 FLIGHT, 29 January I960 BLACKBUSHE TO BERMUDA ... This is what VLF looks like in practice in the VLF problem as a whole—is HMG's stated determinationto do nothing that will undermine the position of the State corporations. We heard many criticisms of BOAC. Because thisairline is a State corporation it is highly vulnerable (and sensitive) to criticism, and a lot of unfair comment gets mixed up with thefair. Therefore we shall record only the remarks of a senior Bermuda Government official, who did not want his name to bedisclosed, believing them to give the most balanced Bermudian view of BOAC's role in the island's affairs. This official referred to "a very strong desire" on the part ofthe Bermuda Government to see Eagle Airways Bermuda expand. This airline would strengthen the tourist route to the US, a routethree-quarters-dominated by US and Canadian carriers, and from which BOAC had at one time pulled out entirely. PanAm could,and given the chance would, carry all this traffic, and Bermuda did not want this vital tourist route—upon which 75 per centof its entire economy ($30m in 1959) depended—so completely dominated by US carriers. [PanAm, who are now sweeping theroute with jets, carried 46 per cent of the N. America - Bermuda traffic in the peak months April-September 1959, and EasternAir Lines carried 22 per cent. The remaining third was carried by BOAC, 17 per cent; Eagle, 10 per cent; and TCA, 5 per cent.]"This is why we welcome Eagle as well as BOAC," he said. He added that local people also felt strongly that the air servicesto the UK were "just not adequate." The corporation had been asked many times to "get organized" on the UK - Bermuda route,but the answer had always been that UK - Bermuda direct was not as profitable as via New York. Certainly BOAC had put moreservices through Bermuda, but at the same time they had added more and more "points beyond," like Caracas and now Bogota.The corporation quite naturally wanted the end-to-end business, because it was more profitable. Meanwhile local people continuedto find it difficult to get seats. It was not only the shortage of seats: the fare direct to theUK was "just not competitive." Bermuda's position was that it was cheaper to fly to London via New York, or to Lisbon fromMiami. The proposed low fare would not only generate new indigenous traffic—civil servants, schoolchildren, relatives and soon—it would tap a new tourist market in the UK. "One of our problems," explained the official, "is how to sustain the island'stourist business in die off-peak months of December, January and February. The preferable source is Europe, which meanslargely the UK." The only airline that could do something about this was the national carrier, BOAC. It had not yet done so,which was why Bermuda had welcomed and approved Eagle's proposal. [We had already learned that the UK contributed lessthan two per cent of Bermuda's 109,515 air tourists in 1959.] "What are the UK's best interests?" he went on to ask. "Arethey not to develop the ties widi the Colonies? But you can't keep on saying this to HMG. The Colonies today bear no resem-blance to the Colonies of Imperial Airways' days, or even to the situation 15 years ago. Look at Jamaica—it could have the biggestairline in the West Indies if it wanted to. Mr Manley [the Jamaican Prime Minister, who has recently been saying thatJamaica might leave the West Indies Federation] is in the UK at the moment complaining about HMG's veto on PanAm's jetservices,* and he wants Chicago rights, too. You can't keep sellin r BOAC to these people for ever, and unless the Colonies' interest",are encouraged things will go the other way. It is obvious that the public interest in the Colonies is being overlooked." By nov,,added our informant, there could have been a one-year trial of Eagle's service, UK approval of which would not have beenirreversible. These were strong words, and they are recorded here becausewe believe that their author was a moderate and representative spokesman of Bermudian opinion. He concluded by discountingwild suggestions that Bermuda would not notice the difference if BOAC withdrew all its services tomorrow. "We want BOAC,"he said, "not only for commercial reasons but because it is a powerful symbol of Bermuda's ties with the old country." Andit was wrong to think that Eagle were the blue-eyed boys. "We don't say to them lOh you poor little boys, we will look afteryou.' We say to them 'Come on, get on with it, we want more seats available on this route or that route.' We have powers overtheir activities and they accepted this when they came here." There, right or wrong, is Bermuda's point of view. BOAC, theMinistry and the Colonial Office probably feel that they have done and are doing everything they can to look after the island'sair interests, along with those of the other Colonies. But they should not under-estimate the strength of the feelings in Bermuda—as well as in the other Colonies we have visited in the past year —that local interests have been neglected.* * * This, then, is the background to two recent special London(Blackbushe) - Bermuda - London flights operated on behalf of Eagle Airways Bermuda by DC-6Cs of the parent company. Thefirst was on December 13-15, the second—which Flight accom- panied—was on January 9-13. Approval of these special flightswas granted by the Bermuda Government, and they complied with the UK Civil Aviation Act in that they were "non-systematic," *Last week Andrew Rose, West Indies Federal Minister of Com-munications, said in London that though PanAm's through jet service to Jamaica was not catered for in the US-UK Bermuda agreement of1946, this agreement was now out of date. Before next month's con- ference in Barbados, at which the US and the UK would review theirbilateral air agreement, matters of particular interest to the West Indies would be submitted to HMG for inclusion on the agenda. He had, hesaid, come to London twice since last May to discuss civil aviation affairs. Tourism was now a vital industry to the West Indies, and itwas intended to set up a commission of inquiry, with the UK partici- " paring, to discuss Caribbean air transport matters regularly. h This is what the British Colony of Bermuda looks like from about 70,KW •i£
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