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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1583.PDF
FLIGHT,! November 1961 687 At Miami, third busiest US air- port, there are 58 Cunard Eagle movements a week. These com- prise the frequent Viscount shut- tles to Nassau, and the weekly Britannia service from London. Taking off is an Eastern Air Lines Boeing 720 support. Trie airline's main offices are in the Cunard building inNew York; and Mr Guinane, the chief executive, is warm in his choice of words about the help he and his staff have been given.The relationship appears to be one of mutual respect and inde- pendence; the parent does not meddle in the airline's affairs. The two top men, both exceptionally agreeable people, areMr M. A. Guinane, chief executive (based in New York), and Mr H. P. Snelling, general manager, who is based in Bermuda. MrGuinane was a pilot with Eagle in its earliest days, later forming his own airline, Dragon Airways. Until he was given the job lastyear of running Cunard Eagle's western hemisphere division, he was Mr Bamberg's deputy in London. He is respected for his flairfor management and administration, one of his specialities being cost control (he calls for a report each month from every depart-ment, comparing actual expenditure with the budget, and wants a good explanation of any actual that is above estimate). Mr Snel-ling joined the company last spring, having for many years been commercial manager of Skyways in London. He holds the opera-tional and commercial reins in the two Crown Colonies which are, so to speak, the mother countries of Cunard Eagle's western hemis-phere division. It was Mr Snelling, for example, who brought about the recent signing of what he described to me as a "'pact of At Bermuda one of the company's two Britannia 318s passes through on the weekly mid-Atlantic scheduled service from London to Nassau and Miami. These aircraft have 98 seats—14 first-class, 66 economy and 18 Skycoach (the latter to the Colonies only). During the recent summer Cunard Eagle's Britannias operated 75 transatlantic one-way charters, and the airline's four DC-6s operated a further 40 non-aggression" with the new Bahamas Airways on the Nassau - Florida route (about which more in another article). Mr Daly, naturally enough, has pretty strong views about airv sea transport on the North Atlantic. I asked him about the extent to which Cunard might wish to influence the commercialand fares policies of its airline when (no one says "if") Cunard Eagle gets into business on the North Atlantic. His reply was;"The best way we can help Cunard Eagle is to sell it." He re- minded me that there are 15 Cunard offices in the USA, and nine inCanada, and that their sales staff have undertaken courses with Cunard Eagle in the techniques of airline sales and reservations. The best way Cunard can help, said Mr Daly, is by selling CunardEagle—and Cunard are doing this already with a sales organiza- tion unmatched by any foreign airline operating into the USA. While the name Cunard has given renewed power and thrust tothe airline, this big British shipping line's investment in air transport is one that must pay off. This summer's season on theNorth Atlantic has, if anything, been worse for the shipping lines than it has for the airlines; the controversial Government assistancefor a new £30m Queen may not now, after all, materialize; and passenger, mail and cargo traffic between Europe and the USA willinexorably continue to be lost to the air. Sir John Brocklebank, the Cunard chairman, has said that the "extent of Cunard's investmentin air transport and its relation with Cunard's shipping interests will be the subject of close examination." To put it bluntly, CunardEagle must get its North Atlantic licence. If it does not, the Cunard-Cunard Eagle partnership is bound to be in jeopardy. My second strongest impression—the American air transportaccent of this British independent—registered again and again during my tour. It registered most strongly during talks 1 had inNew York with Mr Alfred M. Hudson, general sales manager, and Mr Bob Garrity, interline and agency sales manager. Both areAmericans (indeed, except for the chief executive and his Bermuda- based deputy, Mr H. Snelling, the airline's commercial staff ispredominantly American or American-schooled). Talks with them strengthened my belief that Cunard Eagleknows, more than any other British independent, the meaning of competition. The airline flies Viscounts between New York andBermuda in competition with 707s and DC-8s operated by Pan American, the world's most powerful international airline; with theDC-8s and DC-7s of Eastern, the second biggest airline in the world; and with the 707s and Britannias of BOAC. an airline whose repu-tation for service and aggressive selling is—I was pleased to hear —acknowledged wholeheartedly by Cunard Eagle. And on theNassau - Miami route, the airline's Viscounts are up against Pan American and BOAC's Bahamas Airways. How does this com-pany, which has no cosy pool agreements with anyone and which has only a small fleet, a small staff and a small budget, survive? Not only has the Iamb survived among the lions; it has steadilyincreased its share of the market on both routes. The table below tells the story of the New York - Bermuda route. These results speak for themselves. The results on Nassau -Miami are, if anything, more impressive. My questions to Messrs Hudson and Garrity were aimed at trying to discover how suchresults are achieved by a small airline in the face of massive com- petition, and on routes where there are no predetermined restric-tions on the amount of capacity that anyone can schedule. "There is as much competition on the New York - Bermudaroute," said Mr Hudson, "as on any route in air transport." He remarked that when Eagle first went in, "everyone said we hadn't ahope. We went in and fought, and Pan American, Eastern and BOAC fought harder. This develops the business for everyone." I asked what sort of competition BOAC put up. "They're notdragging their feet." was the reply, "they provide a real good service." Did Cunard Eagle, in its sales efforts, find that BOAC,so to speak, was always there before? "Sometimes, oh yes, they're there before us," Mr Hudson said, "but other times we're therebefore them. And we're not short of ideas. Although we couldn't be closer or better friends with John Fountain [BOAC's managerin Bermuda], between 9 and 5 we're out to capture every bit of the market. He respects us and we him." I asked Mr Hudson whether he believed that if you put a newcarrier on a route it increases the market. "It has to," he replied. "New men, new ideas—they develop the market for everyone.On the Atlantic route you have PanAm with 23 per cent of the market. TWA with 13 per cent, and BOAC with 10 per cent. Airline PAA BOAC EAL CEA Totals 1958 Passengers 74,393 30,718 41,046 9,977 (%) 68.9 70.2 42.9 48.4 Market (%) 47.6 19.6 26.5 6.3 156,134 NEW YORK - BERMUDA 1959 Passengers 71,555 37,046 30,842 15,207 l.f. (%) 62.1 64.5 44.5 54.9 Market (%) 46.2 23.9 20.1 9.8 154,650 COMPETITION I960 Passengers 75,005 36,381 34,656 19,806 l.f. (%) 70.9 59.6 52.3 68.8 Market (%> 45.3 21.7 20.8 12.2 165,848 1961 (January to August) Passengers 57,341 23.329 20,530 17,598 l.f. (%) 65.8 44.9 45.8 51.8 Market (%) 48.2 19.6 17.4 14.8 1 18,798 Note I: Provision of seats during the 1961 summer peak was: PAA, 28.3 percent; BOAC, 31.8 per cent; EAL, 25.2 per cent; CEA, 14.7 per cent. Note 2: Flights operated during the 1961 summer peak were: PAA, daily Boeing 707 plus two weekend extras: BOAC, daily Boeing 707 plus daily Britannia; EAL, daily DC-8 plus three weekend Super Constellations; CEA. daily Viscount plus two/three Britannias per week.
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