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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1885.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 December 1961 999 Lost week BEA and Lufthansa were due to sign an agreement for the joint operation, as from January 2, of all-cargo Argosy services between London - Dusseldorf and Frankfurt on six nights a week. BEA's three Argosies, one of which is seen here being unloaded at London Heathrow, are now operating scheduled services to Milan, Paris and Jersey, and are due to take over the corporation's all-cargo services to Manchester, Glasgow and Copenhagen next month SUPER BROUSSARD PROGRESS THE first production Max Holste MH-260 Super Broussardis nearing completion at Nord's Bourges factory and is dueto fly at the end of the month, or very early in the new year. A batch often will be built in 1962, with first deliveries to a customerin the second quarter; and the first pressurized MH-262 is due to make its first flight next September, followed by the first productionMH-262 in November. During 1963 the production rate will be increased from one tofour per month and 42 aircraft of both versions (30 MH-262s and 12 MH-260s) will have been built by the end of 1963; the productionrate could be increased to eight a month if orders justify it. The Super Broussard is already arousing keen interest amongairlines, and the first MH-260 will make a one-month sales and demonstration tour in the former French territories in Africa early-next year. At the end of the winter, it is understood, it will be evalu- ated on the night airmail service of Postale de Nuit, an Air Francesubsidiary, and one or more aircraft will fly on Air Inter routes in June or July. Nord is responsible for marketing and sales as well as forproduction. The production effort is divided according to man- hours and the number of people working as follows: 30 percentat Bourges, forward and centre fuselage, final assembly and flight test; 30 per cent at Mealute, inner and outer wing construction;10 per cent at Les Mureaux, making engine cowlings, mountings and glued panels; 30 per cent to Max Holste at Rheims who aremaking the rear fuselage, tail surfaces, flaps, ailerons, undercarriage fairings and engine nacelles. The pressurized MH-262 will have accommodation for 26 pas-sengers and eventually 32. and the Bastan IV turboprops will have an initial overhaul life of 1,000 hours. The MH-260 with "indis-pensable equipment" will sell for NF1.4m (£101,000) without tax and the MH-262 will cost NF1.6m (£115,000). CAA's MYSTERIOUS PROFITS MYSTERIOUS is the only word which adequately describesthose ruined walls which lie not far away from Fort Victoria.The same word appropriately describes the financial results of Central African Airways, for the most diligent examination of thelatest report and accounts provides only a few possibly controver- sial suggestions as to the source of the airline's unexpected profitsin the year ended March 31, 1961. Until recently, CAA was one of those unfortunate airlines whichjust could not operate profitably, this apparently being due to the need to operate non-commercial services. But, over the past twoyears, the airline has become one of the more lucrative organizations in the Federation. Although the layout and content of the annualreport has improved beyond recognition, no meaningful analysis is given to explain this remarkable transformation. The most striking feature of the CAA economy is that, unlikemost other airlines, it has not been based upon a steady growth of traffic. The volume of business actually reached a peak in 1957and has been declining gradually ever since. This has resulted partly from the economic and political uncertainties which havebedevilled the Federation. But the main reason has been the voluntary transfer of the operation of its UK services to BOAC.During the years, while CAA was paring down its staff to fit its somewhat reduced scale of operation, it was obviously difficult tobreak even. But by 1960-61 a stable position appears to have been reached, and the prospect is now one of renewed growth. The next striking feature of CAA is its extraordinarily high costlevel. In 1960-61 this worked out at 46 pence per c.t.m.; for an airline which is primarily a Viscount operator, and is achieving goodutilization rates, this figure is almost alarming. No explanation of the cost level is given in the report, but close examination of theaccounts suggests that the blame must be attached to prohibitive fuel costs on the one hand, and to high !labour costs on the other.The former item probably derives from the airline's relatively inaccessible location in central Africa; this must add considerablyto fuel distribution costs. The high labour charge is undoubtedly the inevitable price which has to be paid if good staff are to beretained in central Africa, but it could also be a sign that the labour force of 1,182 is either under-utilized or engaged on activitiesother than CAA's own operations. Even more remarkable than the high cost level is CAA's abilityto become profitable and subsidy-free in the face of unusual adver- sity. Not only did costs rise in 1960-61, but load factor fell sharplyfrom 66 to 62 per cent, and the grounding of the Viscount fleet —due to the discovery of stress corrosion cracks in the upper spars—led to a heavy loss of business. As a result, operating expenditure in 1960-61 rose fractionally to £2.8m (output was virtually un-changed at 14.5m c.t.m.) while traffic revenue fell 5 per cent to £2.3m. The year's budget showed a loss. Yet the year ended with abest-ever profit of £127,000. The clue to this paradox—profits improving when traffic revenuesare being outstripped by costs—is to be found in an item described as "other revenue." This rose from just over £Am in 1959-60 toalmost £lm in 1960-61. Although no reference to this vital item is contained in the report, it is possible to dig out some of the factswhich appear to have contributed to CAA's profit. In the first place, the airline now conducts an extensive handling business, largely forits pool partners. Secondly, it is now doing a substantial amount of selling for other airlines. This is apparent from the balance sheetwhich shows that at the year-end CAA owed other airlines £lm in advance bookings and sales—a figure which suggests that theairline's staff sell more accommodation on other airlines than on their own. In the third place, CAA is still receiving payments fromBOAC in return for having in 1957 handed the operation of UK services to the corporation. (In the BOAC accounts this charge,£lfm over 10 years, is submerged under the title commission paid.) Fourthly, there is the possibility that any benefits accruing to CAAunder the quadripartite BOAC/SAA/EAA/CAA pool might be included in this item "other revenue." And finally, CAA must havereceived substantial interest payments on its investments, which are now valued at a considerably higher figure than its entire fleet. FOR LORD DOUGLAS'S WASTEPAPER BASKETD ESCRIBING criticisms of BEA in the recently issued ToothillReport on the Scottish economy as "a resounding slap in the face," Lord Douglas makes a vigorous reply in the BEA Magazine.Having previously said that, so far as he is concerned, the best place for the Toothill Report is his wastepaper basket, BEA"s chairmannow declares:— "In point of fact. 1 think that BEA has served Scotland extremelywell over the past 15 years and in support of this view the following facts speak for themselves:— (1) In the process of developing the trunk routes between Londonand Scotland into a profitable state, BEA lost nearly £3m. In addition, we have lost over £3m in providing a network ofinternal air services in Scotland. (2) BEA serves 13 points in Scotland, with a population of 5m. com-pared with 7 in England and Wales, with a population of 46m. (3) The number of seats provided by BEA between London and Scot-land has increased nearly three-fold during the past five years. (4) The cheapest air fare in the world is offered by BEA on its London -Scotland routes. Dealing with criticism in the Report that, "it is clear that tourismhas been favoured at the expense of business" on the Scottish trunk routes, Lord Douglas goes on:— "While it is true that a great deal of BEA's effort has been directedtowards implementing our policy of lower fares, thus bringing the price of air travel within the reach of more and more people, thefirst-class business traveller has by no means been overlooked. "During the past summer, for example. BEA provided 510,000seats between London and Scotland, of which 93,000 were first-class Of these, 360,000 were sold, including 69,000 first-class. Thepassenger load factor was therefore 71 per cent, which means that we were left with 150,000 unsold seats on our hands, including24,000 first-class. "On the 'businessmen's' morning and evening services, 129,000seats were provided including 46,000 first-class, 95,500 seats were sold, including 37,000 first-class, which means that 26 per cent of allseats provided on these services were not filled. These figures hardly square with tlffi Toothill Report's complaints of lack of capacity,especially first-class."
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