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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0223.PDF
FUGHT, 17 February 1961 223 BOAC's HUNGRY FREIGHT HOLDS— "CIGURES just published by the Ministry of Aviation for British-T air traffic in November 1960 show continuing healthy rates of increase. BOAC's efforts to increase western-routes business con-tinued, and total capacity ton-mileage made available on these routes in the twelve months ending November 1960 increased byno less than 42.6 per cent. However, load factor fell to the uncom- fortably low figure of 50.7. In the month of November itself,though ton-mile capacity was increased by a staggering 60 per cent, traffic increased at less than half this rate. The western BOACpicture seen in the light of passenger business does not appear so disquieting. Seat-mileage offered by BOAC on western routeswent up by nearly 36 per cent to more than two million in the twelve months ending last November, passenger-miles increasingby nearly 31 per cent to 1.2 million. Passenger load factor fell by just over two points to 58.9 per cent. These results provide a measure of the emptiness of BOAC's707 and DC-7F cargo holds, and have to be considered in the context of the corporation's efforts to cut cargo rates at the recentParis conference (see col 2). BOAC's total overall load factor on all routes in the twelvemonths ending November 1960 was a reasonably satisfactory 57.3 per cent, only half a percentage point less than in the corre-sponding previous twelve months. This is because of a healthy uplift on eastern and southern routes, where overall load factorwas nearly 65 per cent—the result of traffic increasing by nearly 17 per cent while capacity increased by less than nine per cent.Passenger-mileage on these routes during the year under review went up by 25.6 per cent, a nicely judged response to exactly thesame increase in the seat capacity that was scheduled. Wearing the special medals pinned on them last week by Emperor Haile Selassie is the crew of the Ethiopian Airlines DC-6B which flew the Emperor on his recent State Visit to West Africa and Brazil —BUT IATA FAILS TO AGREE YI^HEN IATA's Cannes conference ended last October with a™ * two-year agreement on passenger fares, it was decided to hold a special conference on January 23 to discuss "new approaches tocargo rating to encourage greater bulk traffic"—primarily over the North Atlantic. The meeting duly took place in Paris, and it endedon February 10 with no agreement. This means that unless agree- ment is reached by April 9, when the present North Atlantic cargofare agreements expire, an open-rate situation may exist. Already BOAC have spoken of "consulting the Government" about cuttingcargo rates. Rather more outspokenly, Pan American and TWA have both said that they intend to "go it alone" on April 10, andSeaboard & Western have declared that they will introduce their proposed fare structure on July 1. Thus a cargo war on theAtlantic now appears quite likely. The basic conflict is over the American proposal to do awaywith all the special commodity rates. These promotional cargo tariffs yield about two-thirds of North Atlantic freight traffic, butPan American, TWA and Seaboard & Western want to scrap the system and introduce in its place a reduced overall rate with higher"break points" to stimulate bulk cargo. At present there are two break points : consignments weighing up to 45kg cost about 20s tosend from London to New York; thereafter the price comes down to about 15s per kg. At 500kg, the price comes down again by ashilling or two depending on circumstances. Pan American want to cut the 20s to 13s, the 15s to 8s, and want to introduce a newbreak point, at 7,500kg, where the rate would come down to 5s. It is believed that the TWA proposals are similar. Seaboard & Western, the only all-freight specialist on theAtlantic, is planning to introduce the first of its five CL-44D4s on July 1, and it has the problem of filling aeroplanes with a65,0001b payload (30,000kg). The DC-7Fs and Super Constella- tion all-freighters used by the other carriers have payloads of onlyabout half that of the CL-44D4. Seaboard & Western's proposed cuts are not, however, as great as those of Pan American, exceptthat it wants to charge about 4s a kilo for full CL-44 consignments of 30,000kg—and wants also to increase commission to freightforwarders and cargo agents as an incentive. BOAC say that their proposals, which are believed to specifycuts in commodity rates rather than drastic reductions in the general rate, would produce "a lower overall rate than any otherrecommended." Mr Gilbert Lee, BOAC's commercial director, said last week: "We now have vastly increased cargo capacity onour high-frequency, high-speed Boeing 707 jet flights and on our regular transatlantic freighter services, and BOAC is determinedto keep in the forefront of the move to reduce freight rates for shippers and agents and to do all it can to help the new Britishexport drive." The cargo rate pattern in Europe, the Middle East and Africastands without change, so that BEA's desire to extend to all routes the commodity rates at present applicable to only certain routesdoes not appear to have been acceptable. However, a special IATA group has been set up to meet in May to consider a study of theEuropean rating structure which a group of European carriers has now embarked upon. THE AMERICANS GET TOUGH EVERY foreign airliner is now regarded by the Americans, itwas recently said, as a bird of prey. As the Italians, Dutch and Scandinavians have discovered in the past year, it is certainlybecoming more and more difficult to obtain traffic rights from the United States. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to saythat a major reversal of American policy concerning the freedom of the air has taken place. The Civil Aeronautics Board has just drafted a new regulationwhich, if it is enforced, may require foreign countries to curtail their air services to the United States. The proposed regulationwould give the CAB powers to do two things: — (1) Call upon all holders of US foreign carrier permits to submitto the CAB details of all present and future schedules and—this <•> the controversial requirement—to produce traffic data;2) Require a hearing into a request by any foreign carrier to include a new stop in its route to US territory, even though sucha stop may be included in the bilateral agreement or US foreign carrier permit. The first of such hearings is scheduled to start onFebruary 23. It may be assumed that the reaction of the British Governmentt« this latest American move will be vigorous and immediate. It certainly seems incredible that such a controversial step shouldInve been taken at a time when air traffic relations between the two countries, following the breakdown of talks in Washington1: -t May, are in such a delicate state. It is believed that the Government has told the Americans to forget about the idea of having hearings on February 23, and has presumably reserved theUK's rights to disagree that hearings are necessary anyway. It may also be assumed that the majority, and probably all, Europeangovernments are co-ordinating their opposition to the American move. If this means, as seems evident, that the Americans are proposingto put capacity limitations on foreign airlines serving US territory, the implications could be interesting. It has always been theAmericans who have rejected the restrictive approach to air com- merce. The five freedoms of the air agreed at Chicago in 1944were a compromise between the liberal freedom-of-the-skies out- look of the Americans and the more restrictive approach of theless well-endowed (from the air transport point of view) countries, including the United Kingdom. The Bermuda agreement of 1946between the US and the UK did not call for the placing of restric- tions on capacity offered; instead it provided for a reasonable rela-tionship between supply and demand, and for ex post facto review whenever one country felt that it was being "swamped" by theother. The Bermuda principles, which have served air transport well,now appear to be in jeopardy. The Americans are concerned at the increasingly heavy demands made on them by foreign airlines.The coming of the long-range jets has radically altered many of the piston-era route schedules agreed between countries, and—as the recent conflict between the Americans and Scandinavians illustrated—there is discord over the meaning of fifth freedom and
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