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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1098.PDF
w 200 FLIGHT, 10 August 1961 After a lifetime in commercial air transport, Mr Wilfred £. Clark has retired as the specialist consultant, notably on the VCIO, to Vickers' civil aircraft development group. Mr Clark joined Aircraft Transport and Travel in 1919 and served subsequently with Instone Air Lines, Imperial Airways, BOAC, and Airwork AIR COMMERCE . . . Madeira and asked if Mr Whybrow knew whose flag flew over the island.When Mr Whybrow suggested the Portuguese flag Mr Mekie asked if the witness would accept his word that it was the Spanish flag; MrWhybrow said that he would, and Mr Mekie said that he would be wrong! On traffic estimates, Mr Mekie suggested that BUA's were too lowand pointed out that Aquila had carried 5,700 passengers in 1957 and 10,500 in the eight months during which they had operated their servicein 1958. Mr Whybrow said that the route would have to be re-opened and developed and Mr Mekie suggested that it would be easier for thecompany with the history of previous passengers to do this. Mr Mekie also asked for details of the vessel which BUA were proposing to pro-vide for the Porto Santo - Funchal service; another BUA witness said that the £150,000 which BUA were prepared to invest would buy a160-ton vessel 110-130ft long, capable of carrying about 100 passengers at a speed of 17-18kt. The next Madeira application heard was BEA's A. 1098, for a servicevia Lisbon to Porto Santo or Funchal. Mr Milward said that BEA intended operating a year-round service at an initial frequency ofone flight per day with Comet 4Bs. It would be an extension of the London - Lisbon service being operated entirely by BEA for themselvesand on behalf of TAP. In order to provide a link between Porto Santo and Funchal BEA proposed to make use of a small runway at SantaCaterina, near Funchal. TAP were proposing to operate the link with Viscounts after starting with small aircraft [Ju 52s]. Mr Milwardsuggested that the service to Madeira could be efficiently operated only via Lisbon, integrated with the Lisbon service. BEA's good relationswith TAP would probably enable them to get rights to carry cabotage traffic between Lisbon and Madeira. Mr Gardiner cross-examined for BUA. With regard to the poolingagreement with TAP, and BEA's assumption that they would get only half the revenue from the route, he suggested that it was time someother operator had the chance of seeing if more favourable terms could not be obtained for British carriers. Mr Mekie of Silver City was the next to cross-examine Mr Milward.He suggested that Aquila had shown the quintessence of brilliance in making an agreement with TAP which not only gave Aquila all thetraffic and the revenue from it but also secured for them a subsidy for operating the route. Mr Milward agreed that if Aquila had done thatit had indeed been the quintessence of brilliance. The Board next heard Tradair's application A.1269 for a service fromSouthern! to Teneriffe. Mr Porter confirmed the terms of this applica- tion which was, he said, the fourth of a series to cater exclusively fortraffic at inclusive tour and excursion tariffs. Mr Porter suggested that Tradair's proposed services could be kept outside the terms of theSpanish bilateral agreement and said he agreed with Mr Gardiner's suggestion that the independent companies should do their own negotiat-ing. Tradair had succeeded in getting permission to extend their Seville service to Casablanca after government negotiations had provedunsuccessful. Mr Porter referred to his earlier statement that Tradair were notputting forward purchasing commitments in support of their applications but could acquire three more Viscounts immediately if their applicationswere successful; he said that Tradair had, in fact, already decided to buy. Next to be heard was the application by Overseas Aviation, A.I 141,for a service from Gatwick to Porto Santo. Mr Pink produced no statistics but quoted the Portuguese National Tourist Office as sayingthat 70 per cent of the tourists visiting Madeira during the year ended on November 30, 1960, were British and that there was a definite need for adirect air link. Mr Marking of BEA, cross examining, asked Mr Pink to confirm thatthe application was made by Overseas Aviation (C.I.) Ltd, a company registered in the Channel Islands including among its directors MrMyhill and Mr Dromgoole who between them held a controlling interest. Mr Pink agreed. Mr Marking asked whether Overseas Aviation (Engi-neering) Ltd was similarly constituted and controlled; of this Mr Pink was not sure. Mr Pink confirmed that Messrs Myhill and Dromgoolehad a controlling interest in Overseas Aviation Ltd. Mr Marking asked whether the capital of Overseas Aviation Ltd was £20,000, of which MrMyhill held 95 per cent and his wife 5 per cent. Mr Pink was not sure of this. Silver City's Madeira Cake Presenting his case for Silver City's Madeira application (A. 1084),Mr Mekie said they regarded it as in substitution for their existing flying boat licence for a service from Southampton to Lisbon andFunchal. BEA and BUA were both attempting to buy up the rights of the old timer on the route by arguing the benefit which their expenditureon aircraft would bring to British civil aviation: neither had made any attempt to take up the Madeira service at the time Aquila (Silver City)had suspended operations. Aquila had withdrawn their service regretfully, but they had hopedthat the suspension of the service would force the Portuguese Govern- ment to build a landplane strip. Aquila had persisted with the servicedespite the losses they suffered through interruption of their operations by heavy swells, but the difficulties had forced Aquila to suspend theservice in September 1958. By their operation of the service to Madeira Aquila had earned forBritish civil aviation the respect and affection of the islanders. As proof of this Mr Mekie read a letter which had been written to him by MrJohn Blandy (the Union Castle agent in Madeira) and a translation of an article which had appeared in the local paper; Mr Mekie suggestedthat an airline which received such tributes was a worthy representative of British civil aviation and should be granted a licence to operate toMadeira rather than BEA or BUA, who had so far done nothing for the island. Mr Mekie thought the "ancient" TAP Ju52 aircraft which BEAproposed to provide the link between Porto Santo and Funchal were unsuitable. Silver City were proposing to use D.H. Caribou aircraft which wouldoperate from the aerodrome at Funchal and from the roadway of a wide avenue in Porto Santo; this avenue could be cleared for the short timeneeded for landing and take-off. Mr Mekie was cross-examined by Mr Marking about the operation ofthe Caribou. Mr Mekie said that the unrestricted length of the avenue was 400yd, ample for this type of aircraft; it was also wide enough andhad adequate bearing strength. After further questions about the equipment which Silver City pro-posed to use and suggestions that the use by BEA of the most modern aircraft available (Cornets) would do more to further thedevelopment of British civil aviation, Mr Marking asked what advantages Silver City could offer to offset out-of-date equipment and low fre-quency. Mr Mekie suggested knowledge and experience of an island, which the BEA chief executive had not found it necessary to visit, andextensive goodwill resulting from Aquila's past operations. Overseas Aviation's Resources Could Overseas Aviation (C.I.) afford to run the proposed service—•had they the necessary equipment and aircraft ? Mr Pink said they they could—they had 20 Argonauts. Mr Marking asked whether theArgonauts were paid for and whether the company had any unpaid debts. When Mr Pink said that he did not know Mr Marking suggestedthat a company owing BEA substantial sums of money should not come before the Board with this application. [At a later hearing, to be sum-marized in due course, Mr Myhill challenged the validity of this question.] Mr Gardiner, cross-examining for BUA, said that Mr Pink had said,in connection with a previous application, that his company lacked the resources to produce facts and figures—had they the resources for theoperation of this service? Mr Pink said that they had. The Board then considered applications for services to Dublin, thefirst of these being A.1018 by BUA, for a service from Gatwick. The usual BUA supporting document was submitted and Mr Whybrowwas called as witness. He confirmed that the total air traffic from the UK to Eire was the heaviest of all the routes with the exception of Parisand Amsterdam; this was a high density route and the rate of growth of traffic should accelerate although fares were high by comparison withboat and rail fares. BEA load factors were high and the capacity they offered was small. He confirmed that the BEA document showed their1960 load factor to be between 77 and 90 per cent—too high to be good for the public. Mr Marking of BEA asked what reasons Mr Whybrow would suggestfor BUA being granted a licence. Mr Whybrow said that BUA would give the travelling public the choice of another operator, another Londonairport, and different aircraft. Mr Collingwood of BEA explained the special features of the Anglo-Irish bilateral agreement. BEA were not taking up 50 per cent of the total capacity because the 1945 agreement had given the Irish a mono-poly of the UK-Dublin route. This had been re-negotiated in 1956, allowing BEA on to the route. BEA had started with 20 per cent of thetotal capacity and were working up to parity with Aer Lingus, but had not yet reached it. Their load factor was high, but acceptable for a highfrequency route. They were also developing a 150-seat version of the Vanguard which would offer higher capacity on this type of route. BEAbelieved that the traffic potential might be higher than had been esti- mated but this would be met by the higher capacity offered. Mr Gardiner cross-examined on behalf of BUA and Suggested thatBEA seemed to be taking a more optimistic view of the future traffic than had BUA. With this Mr Collingwood agreed. [To be continued.]
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