FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1788.PDF
900 FLIGHT, 14 December 19 l Among those at the British Air L e Pilots Association cocktail party £ Londonderry House on December 6 we •>, left to right, Sir Robert Perki';, BALPA's vice-president; Mr My,/$ Wyatt, chairman of British Unio<j Airways; and Lord Balfour of B:.A ("Flight" photograph) AIR COMMERCE BEA WILL APPEALB EA has decided to appeal against some, though not all, of theAir Transport Licensing Board's decisions awarding 22 new routes to British United, Cunard Eagle and Starways (see Flightlast week). The corporation has 21 days in which formally to lodge its appeal, this period being dated from the publication of thedecisions on December 6. The grounds on which BEA will appeal are a matter for specula-tion; obviously the corporation will have taken note, in the light of the recent BOAC v. Cunard Eagle appeal, of the passage in theBoard report which says that, on the assumption that BEA's traffic estimates are correct, "'it will be the case that they [BEA] willhave a few aircraft too many." The Board says that this surplus, "if it arises at all," will not necessarily lead to the procurement offewer Tridents. Are the independents likely to appeal? Last week British United,Cunard Eagle and Starways—all of whom were awarded consider- ably less than they applied for—said, in effect, that the ATLB'sreport was still being studied. According to the Board, the routes awarded to the independents would justify the use of about sixaircraft of BAC One-Eleven capacity. This would be three or four in the case of BU A and two or three in the case of Cunard Eagle. Last week Mr Myles Wyatt, chairman of British United, sent aletter to MPs setting out the facts about the licensing situation, and drawing attention to BUA's good financial and safety records.Footnote: It is understood that British Railways are to appeal against the ATLB's decision to allow BEA's three-guinea Vanguard night ser-vices to Glasgow and Edinburgh (which have aaually been in operation since November 1). The railways will not appeal against theLondon - Belfast three-guinea fare. It will be recalled that the Minister, in a recent appeals decision, upheld the railways' contention that theATLB should take into account diversion from surface carriers— though the ATLB, in its subsequent European case report, saw noreason why the prospect of such diversion should deter it in the exercise of its primary function "to further the development of civil aviation." TOO MANY BOAC AIRCRAFT IF, as now seems likely, BOAC's loss in 1961-62 is more than£10m, the corporation will have lost about £5 on each of the4im passengers it has carried since 1954-55. The current year's results are likely to be twice as bad as the worst (1958-59) since Government subsidies ceased ten years ago. BOAC's plight, which is due to over-capacity, is no less grave for having been foreseen four-and-a-half years ago. It was clear that BOAC had ordered too many aircraft—even assuming an average annual 15 per cent traffic-growth: "In 1962, if traffic grows at the average world rate, BOAC will find themselves with 35 per cent too much capacity—even assuming that all Britannia 102s and DC- 7Cs are sold by 1962" (Flight, June 7, 1957). The fact that traffic- growth has fallen considerably short, particularly during the current year, has aggravated what might in any case have been a serious situation. BOAC's managing director, Sir Basil Smallpeice, tells staff in the current edition of BOAC News that the corporation is more than £8£m worse off than in the budget prepared last March. A loss of £2Jm revenue is attributed to the strike in July, and revenue since April has been below budget by as much as £6Jm, largely due to the shortfall on the Atlantic. World-wide passenger load factor has been 52 per cent compared with 58£ per cent budgeted. The only cheerful news is that BOAC's expenditure has not exceeded budget. The analysis from which the above extract is taken predicted 70per cent too much BOAC capacity in 1965, assuming disposal of all the corporation's Britannia 102s and DC-7Cs. Since that dateBOAC has ordered an additional three Boeing 707s and has changed an order for 35 VClOs to include 20 of greater-capacity Superstandard, and has ordered ten more Super VClOs in addition. BOAC will have to find truly prodigious amounts of traffic ifresults more disastrous than those in 1961-62 are to be averted. US SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT BY 1967?T HE Americans are hoping to have a prototype supersonicairliner flying by 1967, according to Col Rochte, chairman of a joint Government committee studying SST development, in anaddress to a conference in Washington on high-speed airworthiness requirements sponsored by the FAA, USAF and NASA. Col Rochte suggests the following schedule for a supersonicairliner: research completed and contractors chosen by 1963; con- struction started by 1964; first test flight in 1967; certification andstart of service by 1970. The aircraft would be Mach 3, and would cost as much as S500m (£ 178.5m) to develop to the prototype stage,compared with the $112m (£40m) needed for the Douglas DC-8. Col Rochte feels that a Mach 2 aircraft would be "merely aninterim model." In addition to problems like the sonic boom and the need for new heat-resisting metals and alloys, says Col Rochte,a new engine is needed which will be as efficient at 5,000ft as at 50,000ft, and variable-sweep wings will have to be developed. Footnote: Anglo-French negotiations on the joint development of asupersonic airliner were taken a stage further in Paris on December 7 when Mr Peter Thorneycroft met M Buron, the French Minister ofPublic Works and Transport, to discuss "matters of common interest." The two Ministers have agreed on the next steps to be taken and willmeet again early in the new year to decide how to proceed further on supersonic collaboration. CHEAPER ATLANTIC FARES?M AJOR North Atlantic carriers began conferring privatelyin Bermuda on Monday in an attempt to agree on cheaper fares. Among the proposals expected to be discussed is one for agroup fare for parties of 30 or more passengers, to lure back to the scheduled services the many thousands of passengers who noworganize themselves into parties to charter aircraft at cheaper rates. Nearly 200,000 people are believed to have crossed the Atlanticby this means in the current year. Another proposal to be discussed is for an individual excursionreturn fare of about £130, valid for between 16 and 23 days and available throughout the whole year, except at weekends. Thisproposed fare compares with last summer's cheapest scheduled fare of £154 7s on propeller driven aircraft and £173 15s by jet. Thepresent 17-day excursion fare of £114 16s, which has been quite successful in boosting traffic after a slack summer, is available onlybetween October and March. ARGOSY MILESTONE WITH two of its three Argosy freighters delivered, BEA beganregular all-freight services with this type on December 1with a flight to Milan. This service is being operated four times weekly, and on Tuesday of last week twice-weekly services to Parisand Jersey began. Following delivery of the third aircraft this month, all-freight Argosy services to Diisseldorf and Frankfurt(six times weekly), Manchester (five a week), Glasgow (three times a week) and Copenhagen (six times a week), will begin next month.In introducing the Argosy, which it plans to use for an average of 2,000 hours per aircraft each year, BEA offers an increase if1,500 per cent in the maximum permissible bulk of individual freight items. The top limits are now 6ft 8in x 8ft 4in x 46ft—no lessthan the overall size of the Argosy's hold, and a far cry from t; e 2ft x 5ft x 17ft limits imposed by the door size of the Pion: -irLeopard freighters previously used.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
