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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0313.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 March 1961 321 irst direct services to Sicily will be started by BE A Vanguards on June I. 'his was the first arrival of a Vanguard in Sicily, which it visited on a oute-proving flight to Punta Raisi Airport, Palermo, on February 28 AIR COMMERCE America's Latest Big Stick WHEN Thetis held her son Achilles by the heel and dippedhim in the Styx, she made his mortal body invulnerable.His adversaries could not dispose of him, and it was Apollo who finally provided the guidance system that directed the fatalarrow at the heel by which his mother had held him. Now the great anti-trust gods in America have found a vulnerable spot inforeign airlines at which to direct their arrows—pool agreements. Not only has the US Civil Aeronautics Board demanded thatforeign airlines operating into the USA should submit full details of their schedules (present and future) and traffic statistics; thelatest move is that the CAB examiner, Mr Edward Stodola, has given BO AC, Qantas and Air-India until April 12 to reply to aPan American submission that these airlines—and others operating in pool into the USA—should give details of their poolingarrangements. BOAC has already, according to a report from Washington, fileda "counter-motion" asking that the PanAm proposal be rejected. It is now up to the CAB to decide whether the Pan Americanproposal should be upheld, and that foreign air carrier permits should be amended to give the CAB the right to examine poolagreements. The United States is the only air transport nation to repudiatepooling, which it regards as a commercial practice in conflict with its anti-trust laws. These laws apply to all holders of US foreignair carrier permits; in other words, foreign airlines do not enjoy immunity from US anti-trust legislation. The recent court casethat resulted in gaol sentences for a number of senior executives of America's electrical and electronics industry was an extremeexample of the anti-trust lengths to which the Americans will go. But it has to be proved whether pooling of services by foreignairlines is anti-trust. What could happen is that the Senate anti- trust committee will be directed to investigate foreign airline poolagreements, in the same way that this committee conducted its recent great probe into the aviation insurance business (see lastweek's issue, page 291). It is clear that the Americans are now going to wield everyavailable big stick in their fight to resist the mounting invasion by foreign airlines of the rich US traffic markets. They are, to sumup, doing two things : — (1) Demanding that foreign carriers should provide details of theirpresent and future schedules, and also full traffic data—as explained in a previous issue (February 17, page 223-224).This action is presumed to be aimed at providing the CAB with a statistical basis on which to interpret the Bermuda-typeagreements that regulate air services between the US and foreign countries. These agreements, it will be remembered,do not prescribe limitations on traffic. They merely agree— rather vaguely—that traffic should be related to supply anddemand. The Americans have always deplored attempts by others to control capacity; they are not now doing an "et tu,"but they want to be able to interpret the Bermuda principles more scientifically. It is not at BOAC that this particular CABmove is aimed, but rather at the Scandinavians, Dutch and Italians. (2) As reviewed in this note, the CAB has—so far—upheld aPan American request that pool agreements be investigated. This move, it appears, is aimed directly at BOAC. J. M. R. [Leading article, page 297] KILLING THE GOOSE A DETERMINED attempt to drive away from Heathrow carsthat park for more than 48hr is being made by the Ministry of Aviation. New parking charges, amounting to £2 per day forperiods of over four days, and £1 per day for periods between two and four days, come into force on March 20 at the CentralArea. They will remain effective until October 15. The Ministry say that tenders will shortly be invited for amulti-storey garage in the Central Area, but until this is built passengers who have to leave their cars for extended periods shouldapply to the airport management for particulars of local garages which operate a collect-and-deliver storage service. Because theobvious need for parking space was not anticipated, revenue is now being turned away. BEA AND THE HERALD TT was in June 1959 that the then Minister of Supply announced-*- that negotiations were in hand with Handley Pa<?e for the purchase, at a total cost of about £750,000, of three Heralds foroperation by BEA. The object of the order (a similar one, sinci dropped by Avro, was for the purchase of three 748s) was toimprove the export prospects of these aircraft by "an early demon- stration of their efficiency in regular operation on normal servicesin the UK." Twenty-one months later, in the House of Commons onFebruary 27, the Minister of Aviation announced that "contract negotiations both with the manufacturer and the operator are inthe final stages and I hope that agreement will be reached shortly." The reason for the lone delay was discussed in Flight forMarch 6, pages 33-34; the Minister was unwilline to sanction expenditure on an aircraft which, in the event of Handley Pa»ejoinine Hawker Siddeley, mieht be bought off in favour of the 748. It appears that the Minister is now reassured on this point. The Heralds concerned are not likely to be introduced by BEAuntil early in 1962. TREKKING FORWARD DESPITE gloomy prognostications. Trek Airways—SouthAfrica's enterprising long-haul independent—has faced the twin challenge of jet competition and IATA economy fares andcan look back on a highlv successful 1960. Last year the number of passengers travelling on Trek's variousservices to Europe increased by 16 oer cent to 6,500. while load factors rose from 84 to 85 per cent. The only discernible effect ofother airlines' new economy-class fares turned out to be an increase in the prooonion of passengers who booked a single fareinstead of the usual return ticket; the reason would appear to be This South African Airways Constellation 749 is one of those bought by Trek for its services to Europe (see "Trekking Forward," above)
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