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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1643.PDF
FLIGHT, 9 November 1961 747 The first of two Boeing 72OBs to wear the red, white and blue livery of the western hemisphere's oldest airline, Avianca of Colombia, takes off from Renton on its maiden flight. It will go into service on the Bogota - New York route and also from Bogota to Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt REGULARITY AND PUNCTUALITYI N the correspondence columns of Flight in recent weeks there hasbeen controversy about the comparative dependabiluty of corporation v. independent services, and BIATA have pointed outthat their regularity record in 1960-61 was 99.7 per cent, compared with 98.1 per cent for BOAC and 97.2 per cent for BE A. Regularity is denned as the percentage of scheduled flightsoperated; but, of course, no account is taken of punctuality in this index of dependability. Even if a flight is delayed 24hr it still countstowards 100 per cent regularity. The independents make most of their scheduled flights in the summer, when the weather—whichgives the corporations' regularity a hard beating in the winter—• seldom interferes. In this context it is not always appreciated that stand-by aircraftplay an important part in the attainment of good regularity figures. BEA, for example, reserves one aircraft for stand-by cover forapproximately every eight actually flying. The plan for the recent summer was as follows: Type of aircraft Viscount V.70I ... Viscount V.800 ... Comet 4B (incl. Olympic Airways) Vanguard Totals Number operating 17 29 15 7 68 Number on stand-by 1 at Manchester I at Jersey 4 at LAP 2 at LAP 1 at LAP 9 Number on maintenance 4 6 1 2 13 Totals 23 39 18 10 90 Thus a total of nine aircraft, representing perhaps an investmentof £4|m, is deliberately kept on the ground without producing revenue, all in the interests of regularity. A further 13 aircraft areundergoing maintenance at the same time. Of course, scheduled airlines do suffer delays; but to save a lot ofargument it would be interesting to see figures published for both the corporations and the independents, not only for regularity butalso for punctuality. CHANNEL ISLANDS MARATHON 'T'HE first part of a prolonged series of ATLB hearings, PublicA Meeting 57, lasted for approximately 13hr, when some 16 applications were submitted covering scheduled services and inclu-sive tours to the Channel Islands. Another round started yester- day, November 8, when a further 13 applications were due to besubmitted. Nearly 40 objections by nine operators and the British Transport Commission were heard. Recently Flight recorded thatBEA is to relinquish its 25 per cent holding in Jersey Airlines, "to avoid the possibility of any conflict of interest inherent in a share-holder being also a competitor." At these hearings BEA was, in fact, contesting four of the five Jersey Airlines applications. Revealed at the hearings, which have received little publicity, wasthe lack of good hotel accommodation in the Channel Islands, which are nearing saturation point. According to evidence sub-mitted, guest-capacity increases in 1962 will not exceed 1,000 beds in Jersey or 200 in Guernsey, i.e., not more than 2 per cent. Thisfactor could retard traffic growth considerably. The applications for variations in licences already held by airoperators were mainly for increases in frequency and operation on days other than Saturdays. Dan-Air, Cunard Eagle and the BUAViscount services at present operate only on Saturdays; BUA, for example, were asking for an increase in capacity and permission tooperate on Fridays and Sundays as well. At least one example of an airline attempting to discard shackles which restrict its operations came to light. On the Manchester-Jersey route approximately two-thirds of Jersey Airlines' services during peak periods have to make a compulsory call at Bourne-mouth. This, according to a Jersey Airlines witness, will create operational problems when the present Manchester-Jersey airway ismoved westward in 1962; this will increase the distance from Bourne- mouth to the joining point on the airway. The traffic on this routeis, according to evidence presented, predominantly Manchester- Jersey, and sector traffic is very small. Another route affected by this type of restriction is the JerseyAirlines service from Gatwick, where the present licence calls for 50 per cent of the flights on some of the services to call at two placesin the Channel Islands. Calls have also to be made at Alderney— which, by reason of airfield limitations, compels the use of Heronsand limits the operation of Heralds. The Board's decisions have not been published as this issue wentto press, but obviously not all the carriers will get the carte blanche on capacity applied for. The overall impression is that the airlineswant large increases in capacity and frequencies, while the Channel Islands facilities are unable to expand at a comparable rate to meetincreased demand, even if the traffic is forthcoming to fill increased capacity. AIR BUS MAKES MONEY A CCORDING to the president of Eastern Air Lines, Mri\ Malcolm Mclntyre, the company's Air Bus services are "definitely making a profit." Soon, he says, operations will be at alevel where profits could be made even if the equipment used (Super Constellations that would otherwise be surplus) were notfully depreciated. Described in Flight for July 20, 1961, these services, also known as Air Shuttle, are soon to be extended toserve US cities other than New York and Boston. The difference between these no-reservations services and thosepioneered by Allegheny (Flight, May 27, 1960) is that passengers turning up at the airport are certain to get a seat. Much publicityplay has been made of cases where aircraft have been brought up to carry just one passenger. This does! not happen often (and perhapsmostly when Eastern's publicity boys are at hand) but overall load factor is still 50 per cent—and the word gets around. The New York - Washington and New York-Boston services flyevery hour on the hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Passengers just "come out to the airport and board .... If you wish you may payyour fare on the plane." From the start of services on April 30 until August 26, more than98.2 per cent of scheduled flight departures were on time or within 15min of schedule. During the summer period 92.8 per cent ofscheduled flight arrivals were on time or within 15min of the schedule, extra sections not included. All the flights use a special new "airshuttle" terminal at La Guardia Airport. (The term Air Shuttle, like Air Bus, has been registered by the airline.) This terminal isadjacent to metered and overnight car parks and it has an attractive snack bar, newsagent's shop and comfortable lounges. It also has aclosed-circuit TV system for flight information and self-claim facilities for baggage. "Flight" photograph Eastern Air Lines have regis- tered the name Air Bus, pro- claimed here on one of the company's Super Constellations which operate cut-price no- eservations services from New ark to Washington ($14) •rid boston ($12). A note on the operation incol 2
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