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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0543.PDF
fLIGHT, 15 April 1960 543 AIR COMMERCE Britain Goes It Alone BY J. M. RAMSDEN HAVING put a cabotage pistol to IATA's head, and forcedthe Association under duress to agree to reduced fares,Britain has in effect said: "Thank you, well done," andthen proceeded to pull the trigger. It would not be surprising if, as a result, a certain amount ofgoodwill were to be lost—goodwill which was in short supply after the Honolulu fares conference last autumn, when BOAC,publicly backed by H.M. Government, first rocked the IATA boat with the cabotage threat. But IATA knows full well that Britain has always had the rightto charge whatever fares it wishes on its sovereign routes. As BOAC's chairman, Sir Gerard d'Erlanger, said just beforeHonolulu, "we have always played the game with IATA, so as not to undermine the international fare structure." Since 1952 theindependents have operated some colonial coach services to British territories in Africa and the Mediterranean. Their terms ofreference—inferiority of equipment and service, etc—were such as to minimize diversion even from the British corporations. SoIATA never complained, even though the corporations sometimes did. Though at first sight it may seem that Britain has double-crossed IATA, things should be kept in proportion. IATA may well fear diversion of traffic by this apparent cabotage sabotage ofsacred fare agreements. But the proposed services will be of limited frequency, and restricted to British nationals only. So, though Britain has pulled the trigger, the shot should dolittle injury to IATA. And, after all, what Britain is doing is strictly her own affair. Protests will no doubt be met with theunassailable retort that We are jolly decent chaps anyway for only now exercising sovereign rights that we .have always had the rightto enjoy. The Minister's policy (influenced no doubt by his hard-workingcivil servants, who were grappling with these problems for a long time before he came to power) was that charity, to coin a phrase,begins at home. He had to reconcile the vigorous expansionist demands of private enterprise air transport with the equallyvigorous demands—echoed by all reasonable people, including the independents—that the corporations should not be under-mined. The decision-forcing catalyst was the now famous series of VLF applications put in by Harold Bamberg of Eagle in November1958—a year before Mr Sandys came to power. It is VLF more than any other single event which has broughtabout the new deal. It must be agreed that the resultant com- promise is one which appears to satisfy most of the parties con-cerned, except those loyal employees who have fallen victim to mergeritis, and the public, for whom fares are never low enough. The table on this page compares the new fares with the old: thenew colonial coach fares, which are to be introduced on October 1 (col D), appear in bold type. It will be seen from the table thata good deal of important information is not available. As Flight went to press, nothing was known about the pool agreements madebetween the corporations and the independents. Pressed in the Commons for this information, publication of which Mr Strauss(Lab, Vauxhall) considered to be in the public interest, Mr Sandys said he did not want to interfere with "any wish that might bearrived at between the corporations and the companies concerned." The Minister is likely to be pressed further on this point. Cartelagreements between British companies which fix output and pool earnings are prirna facie not in the public interest, and they shouldcertainly be subject to public accountability, particularly when nationalized corporations are involved.Two questions arise from the table other than those concerning capacity-sharing: Why are there no new colonial coach fares toGibraltar and Malta? And why is the new Hong Kong IATA fare (economy) £9 more than that quoted by the Minister inthe Commons? British United Airways—now officially the name of the Air-work/HCA consortium—will share with BOAC, EAA and CAA the new cabotage-fare services to British East and Central Africa,though it is not known in what ratio revenues will be shared out. British United will also share with these corporations the economy-fare services, but again it is not known on what basis the share-out has been agreed. This new independent will not participate inthe first-class services, as will Eagle on the Bermuda route. Curiously, the BOAC statement which followed the Minister'saddress to the Commons made no mention of the corporation's partnership with Eagle and Cunard on the Bermuda route. TheMinister confirmed that Eagle, in which Cunard are to acquire a majority holding, will operate services of all classes betweenBritain and Bermuda. It is understood that each airline will operate alternately the colonial coach service to Bermuda, but nodetails of frequency, or of the BOAC-Eagle revenue-sharing pool as a whole, are available.BEA are involved in the new deal only on the Malta and Gibraltar routes. Skyways' Constellation 749As (65-seaters) willoperate in pool to Malta with BEA's Viscounts from April 19, but not at a special cabotage fare (see table). This will evidentlycompensate Skyways for the Cyprus Crusader colonial coach Hermes service, absorbed last month by BEA's night touristViscount service. On the Gibraltar route HCA are to pool with BEA, using Viscounts instead of the present colonial coachVikings, but again (see table) not at a special cabotage fare. The future of Silver City remains a matter for speculation.British United Airways' "sphere of influence" is Africa, and Eagle- Cunard's sphere is the Atlantic. No independent is likely tohave the Far East as its sphere, because of the delicate BOAC arrangements with Air-India and Qantas. One guess is that BEAand British Railways may shortly come to an arrangement which will involve Silver City. There has also been some evidencerecently that Silver City are likely to become Handley Page Herald operators.Footnote: Cabin service on the new colonial coach services will include free non-alcoholic drinks, and "light packaged meals" will beon sale. Free baggage allowance is 331b. No information on seat pitch is yet available, nor on the types of aircraft that will be used. Specialinclusive-tour rates will be introduced to certain (as yet unspecified) British cabotage points: in addition special student fares will be available44 per cent below the lowest IATA level, compared with the present 25 per cent rebate. NEW FARES FOR OLD—AND SOME QUERIES London to: Aden ... Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Gibraltar Hong Kong Jamaica (Kingston) Malta ... Nairobi Nicosiat Salisbury Singapore Trinidad Old IATA lowest tst. ret. fare £217 16s £231 10s £268 3s £21813: £38 15s £415 16s £42 £234 £85 £264 12s £363 12s £28310s B Old Colonial coach cabotage ret. fare (% redn. on A) £30 10s (21%) £199 16s« (15%) £806 (6%) £22812s7 (14%) New I ATA lowest ret. ecy. fare (% redn. on A) £183 12s (16%) £189 15s (18%) £232 15s (13%) £180 (17%) £30 10s (21%) £374 8s (10%) £212 5s (16%) £33 13s (20%) £196 4s (16%) £85(=) £221 8s (16%) £327 12s (10%) £242 8s (15%) New Colonialcoach cabotage ret. fare (%redn. on A and C)* £153 (30%) (17%) £162 (30%) (15%) £187 4s (30%) (20%) £153 (30%) (15%) £311 8s (25%) (17%) £176 8s (30%) (17%) £165 11s (30%) (15%) — t £185 8.(30%) (16%) £273 12s (25%) (11%)£198 (30%) (18%) Oprs. of C and % share ( ) of capacity BOAC and ? BOAC and M BOAC and ?1 BOAC and Eagle (?) BEA and HCA (?) BOAC2 (100) BOAC and ?i BEA and Skyways (?) BOAC2 and Br. United* (?) BEA and Skyways (?) BOAC2 and Br. United (!) BOAC2 BOAC and ?l Oprs. of D and % share ( ) of capacity BOAC and ? BOAC and ?l BOAC and ?' BOAC and Eagle (?) BOAC^and ? BOAC and ?1 BOAC2 and Br. United-' (?) BOAC2 and Br. United3 (?) BOAC2 and ? BOAC and !' Frcy. of D H Old VLF ret. fare (% redn on A) £107 £140 £160 £124 £21 4s £246 (%)(40%) (40% (43% (45% (40%) £150 (40%) £19 (55%) £100 . (57% £100 (57% £41 15s (51% £145 (45%) (45%) (42%) £199 £165 •From October 1. t Soon to be non-cabotage. (1) Eagle? (2) BOAC and pool partners (3)i Eagle'si VLF*"^W*£r£'..£& JV? ££^EAA "Canadair Coach." (5) British United Airways—Airwork and HCA. (6) Skyways "Crusader." (7) HCA/Airwork Safari, CAA Zamben. Abbreviations: Tst., tourist; redn., reduction; ecy., economy; ret., return; oprs., operators; frcy., frequency.
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