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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0595.PDF
FJGHT, 4 May 1961 KARSH WORDS ON THE DUTCH POLE-VAULT /• MCE again KLM is at loggerheads with the US air transport\ ) industry over traffic rights for the Dutch airline in the United Sates. A recent State Department announcement that the Uniteds' tes is willing to open negotiations on a polar route for KLM t.' Los Angeles has drawn bitter remarks from the president of theI - Air Transport Association, Mr Stuart G. Tipton. He claims that a only 27 per cent of the traffic carried to and from the US by\._.M originates or terminates in the Netherlands the Dutch are vi ilating capacity provisions in the bilateral agreement between theN.-therlands and the United States. Although KLM has been badgering the US for the right to operateimo Los Angeles since 1957, when the airline was granted a New York - Curacao route with rights at Huston, Mr Tipton says nowthat the present negotiations will be "a mere formality" and that the State Department might just as well have announced immediaterichts for KLM to Los Angeles. KLM's answer to these charges is to argue that if US carrierswant to share traffic to the Netherlands, they should operate more direct services. And as nations with little to offer in the way oftraffic rights have always done, they bemoan the lack of economic freedom in civil aviation. "Restriction of freedom in the air,"states the preamble to the 1960 Annual Report (see page 606), •'is reflected in the still widely fostered principle of quid pro quo.with all its inherent discriminatory elements—which must there- fore be considered totally inadmissible. Such a principle amountsto bilateralism applied exclusively to air policy questions with complete disregard of other economic considerations." The report uses the request for permission to operate to thewest coast of the United States as an example of Dutch economic reasonableness, and of the restrictive attitude adopted by otherStates. Some harsh words have been spoken by the Dutch on the issue of traffic rights at Los Angeles. The willingness of the newadministration to re-open negotiations now is for them an important victory on a matter of principle, especially as it comes at a time whenthe US is strongly resisting further invasion of their own rich mar- kets by foreign airlines. ANY MORE FREIGHTER MK 31s? AFTER 14 years Bristol have been proved right in New Guinea.In 1947, one of the early Bristol Freighters demonstratedthere met with bad luck, the aircraft [being destroyed. But Bristol have always believed that the Freighter was the right aircraft foroperations in that territory. Last month TAA surprised the Australian industry by anannouncement that they had ordered two Bristol 170 Mk 31s from Pakistan (this was just about the only tightly kept secret inAustralian aviation for many years). The aircraft will be flown to New Guinea early this month and will be operated solely on the runfrom Madang to the Highlands. The purchase was an immediate result of restrictions by theAustralian Department of Civil Aviation on DC-3 loadings in Papua and New Guinea, which has meant an average 20 per centcutback on most development routes. The Pakistani Freighters were offered at prices from £5,000. This is the first time in several years that TAA has caught Ansett-ANA by surprise, and on the day the deal was announced Ansett- ANA decided to send a representative to Karachi to see if anyMk 31s were left. They intend to buy three—one for the Australian mainland. The sole remaining Freighter the airline inherited fromANA has run out of the number of landings permitted and would cost too much to modify. TAA have work for about l,800hr a year per aircraft on theMadang - Highlands run, purely on freight, for no passenger-carry- ing will be permitted. They hope to secure enough further charterwork to bring the total utilization to around 5,000hr a year for the two aircraft together. The Mk 31s have a landing life of 9,000,which means about 10,000hr. TAA do not intend using the aircraft for more than three years, and are already looking at the Argosyas a possible replacement, so modification does not worry them. PIA PLANS AHEAD A CHARACTERISTIC, if surprising, feature of PakistanA International Airlines' operations is the sensitivity of its traffic to the introduction of new equipment. This is true even inparts of the world where standards of living are low and where a sophisticated view of air transport is hardly to be expected. Within two years of Viscounts being introduced on the servicebetween Karachi and Lahore, traffic more than doubled; and traffic on the Dacca - Chittagong sector has risen from 38 to 60passengers a day since the Friendship came to East Pakistan in January. When a jet service was introduced between Karachi andi ondon it flew into profitability within a few months. Load factors f'!i when frequency was trebled last October but by this spring thei ute was again making money. Profit on the jet services in March v is nearly £40,000 and the trend is expected to continue as traffic• ;ilds up through the summer season. 605 From the beginning of this month pilots on Aer Lingus- Irish International Airlines transatlantic flights will be wearing this new uniform, later to be adopted on all routes. The colour is the familiar midnight blue and it is woven from Irish Terylene-and-wool yarn This is the background to PIA's order for three Boeing 720Bs,announced last week. If the new 12,000ft runway at Dacca, East Pakistan, is completed in time, the first will be introduced onservices between the east and west wings of the country in January. Of the total cost of £9.6m for the aircraft and spares, 20 per cent isbeing found immediately from PIA's own resources. The remainder is to be financed by a loan from the Export-Import Bank and to berepaid entirely from the airline's future profits. These were £480,000 in 1959-60 and this year are expected to be about £690,000. From this favourable balance PIA will both meet its loan commit-ments on the Boeings and will tackle another long-term objective: the balancing of foreign expenditure on internal operations againstincome from international routes. For this purpose a 30 per cent revenue increase will be necessary in 1961-62 and a further 24 percent in 1962-63. Two factors which favour this attempt to become independentof Pakistan's slender foreign-exchange resources are PIA's rapid rate of expansion and the strenuous efforts which are being made tokeep costs down by increasing efficiency. In the past two years revenues have increased by more than nine-tenths, overtaking totalexpenditure; and about 85 per cent of all PIA's routes are now profitable. Over the whole network a schedule regularity of 87per cent was achieved in 1960, and on the Boeing service the figure for March this year was 93.5 per cent. The airline's immediate plans include the introduction of a NewYork service this month, to be followed by twice-weekly Boeing 720B services between Karachi and Dacca from early next year.Eventually transatlantic frequency will be increased to three times weekly, the Karachi - London operation will be increased to fourservices a week, and the Karachi and Lahore - Dacca services will be served solely by jets. The 707-320 leased from PanAm will beretained when the Boeing 720Bs have been delivered. Japan Air Lines services to London from Tokyo are due to start, at twice-weekly fre- quency, on June 7. Here on a pre-inaugural flight is Mr K. Ishikawa, JAL's vice-presi- dent, accompanied by his daughter. On the right is a JAL stewardess
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