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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0258.PDF
258 FLIGHT, 19 February WHAT COURSE FOR THE INDEPENDENTS? (continued from page 232) licensed applications could be sorted out and channelled. Ineffect that would mean only one application for the Air Transport Board to worry about."But bear in mind that much of the value of the service we now offer, the flexibility as well as the economy, is due to th&fact that we are not hampered with a top-heavy and remote administration. We should not like to lose that quality." In their pleasing new Brompton Road offices the graph of SilverCity Airways bookings showed the "achieved" curve consistently above the "target" for the year. And, quietly above all thebustle of the booking, Eon Mekie, chairman of the company, considers the wider aspects of British Aviation Services Ltd.His reply to my opening question about the outlook from his point of view was:— "I can see no amelioration of the struggle which has alwaysfaced independents operating on marginal routes. It is going to be difficult to go forward as fast as we feel our initiative and skillmerit unless we have an opportunity on the less marginal operations." • : /.. Yours is one of the larger groups. How do you visualize its role in the future? "So long as our main effort is the Silver City operation then ourimmediate development should be in Europe, especially North- West Europe, where our shipping and other commercial connec-tions should help us to develop freight and passenger traffic." Do you see a future for all-freight operation? , . "Not specifically. It is not easy to build up an all-freight opera-tion if passengers are wholly excluded. With the assistance of passenger carrying licences we could later develop an all-cargoservice. We believe in the freight potential, but not to the exclusion of passengers. The paramount consideration is safety, and if one is to have the necessary engin-eering and technical facilities throughout the route the over-heads must be supported by the dual role. Interestingly enough,freight is a seasonal operation." Would you envisage concen- trating on North-West Europe? "Not exclusively. We have charter and contract flying else- where and that is growing." But how would your Europeanroutes fit into the BEA pattern? "BEA are able to maintainsocial services because they are 'carried' by more profitableroutes. We cannot operate only on marginal routes. I hope that£. C. Mekie as a result of legislation, and .. _ . without causing any material•'" ''-" damage to BEA—maybe even the reverse in the long run—we will be given an opportunity toserve the more populated centres so that thereafter we can promote traffic in the less populated areas. "But we really do not see this as a struggle between corporationsand the Independents. Last century British shipping led the world, and if we are now given the opportunity to show initiativeI am quite certain that we can increase the total volume of aviation work for this country." What about the alleged benefits of rationalization? "There is no gain in being gargantuan; the task is to ensurethat we get true economies from the maximum utilization of equip- ment and staff. Certainly it seems to me that there are too manysmall concerns led by dedicated and honest people, but without the facilities that are required. Within the foreseeable future Ishould estimate that the number of independent operators or groups will be reduced to three or four." To what extent will the cost of re-equipment contribute tothis? "I don't think the Independent will make much impact unless he has the equipment, and that implies more modern equipment than some operators can reasonably provide out of capital. It is not right that for new machines they should have to rely upon borrowed money at high interest-rates. Borrowed money ought M. H. Curtis not, in the future, to be such a large proportion of a company'sworking capital." * * * * To Maurice Curtis, managing director of Hunting-Clar AirTransport Ltd., who has grown up in the airline business, \ opened with the same question about his general opinion on theoutlook for the independent companies. He replied: — "It is a two-pronged answer. The potential is there and wehave not started scratching it as yet, but I am not too happy that the Minister's policy as we now know it will allow us toexploit the potential. The first essential as I see it is that all pans of the industry—corporations as well as Independents—mustbe enabled to get their business on to an economic basis. It must be made possible to become self-financing. No amount of policy changing will help the situationunless this necessity is met." And how do you see the role o\your own organization in any future expansion? "Assuming that there can bsno big tear-up of present policy. then the future should mean areasonable expansion of what we have already started. We havebeen particularly experienced ic the low-cost field and we haveput more money into freight than most people realize. We shouldbe allowed to expand these operations, provided we canshow that they are economic. "The big expansion is going tocome with the low-cost opera- tion, and we want encouragement—including the developmentof cargo. Having said that, we must be enabled to pay our way and that may well mean marginal clashes with the corporations. Towatch this sort of thing should be the responsibility of the licens- ing authority with, of course, the Minister in the background." What do you need particularly from the Government to enable you to fulfil the role as you see it? "We want the right conditions; fewer restrictions on types ofaircraft; and our share of mail when we can give better services to the public. In my view long-haul freight from the UK is noteconomic, but it must be developed, and that means another category of service to go with it—the fill-up passenger, forexample. In the United States mails go with these freight opera- tions, and the operators are now getting some of the militarytraffic as well. "Moreover, when we talk of the low-level fare bracket we donot necessarily mean that this should be reserved to us for all time. Nor that we should be restricted to such services. But theimmediate necessity is to get things moving. When we have brought about the first big expansion, then in another five yearsor so a re-adjustment between Independents and corporations might mean that instead of a horizontal split as between the higherand lower fare traffic we might get a vertical split, with the corporations carrying some freight and low-fare passengers whilstwe are allowed to go into the higher-fare business. It would be a mistake to get another over-rigid pattern. "Then we need security. Again I emphasize that the publicnow know that they can get a low-cost operation and in one way or another it must be provided. It is much better for the Govern-ment to make it possible legally without encouraging shady evasions. "Apart from the Colonial possibilities—and there they arescreaming for low fares—there is the possibility of bilateral agreements between countries at each end of a route, say theUK and Canada." What about rationalization? "We have not had any experience of this yet, but the objective must be to build a stronger group with a pooling of skills and resources. The key factor is the reduction of costs." Is re-equipment of the independent companies going to present any problem? "We ought to be ready to consider the freer interchange of equipment on normal commercial terms between one unit of the industry and another. We want also an aircraft which is primarily a freighter if we are going to secure the maximum expansion ot low-cost freight operations. Look at the orders placed for the Canadian CL-44. What have we to offer in this country?
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