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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0473.PDF
Domestic Routes Lead LONDON-GLASGOW NOW BEA'S BUSIEST PERHAPS by next year BEA will fly more seats on the London-Glasgow-route than are scheduled by any airline on any route in the world. This plum route is ripe for a non-ticketed service. ASTUDY of BEA advance timetables for summer 1962 reveals that there has been drastic pruning in the international sector, but that vigorous growth of the domestic trunk routes is expected. Presum ably in an effort to restore sagging load factors, frequencies to Paris and Amsterdam have been reduced by one flight per day, compared with 1961. The amount of first-class accommodation has been reduced also in the latter case. As recorded on February 22, services to Ajaccio, Belgrade and Budapest have been suspended. The routes to Dublin are an exception; in particular, a Vanguard is scheduled to do two return trips from London daily. However, this is a development of the joint plan with Aer Lingus to schedule equal capacity by 1963. Though the cuts have been used as ammunition to fire at the independent companies, the argument has beerr spoiled by the substantial losses that BEA is incurring before any competitive operations have started. All the evidence points to the usual diagnosis: BEA operated 21 per cent more capacity in 1961 than in 1960, and presumably now wishes it had only provided 11 per cent. The figure shows the pattern of capacity growth on six leading BEA routes over the last seven years. It indicates the traffic expected by the planners though extra flights are operated on the international routes if the traffic exceeds the forecast. In 1958 and 1961 abnormal increases in capacity were scheduled on the main international routes, notably Paris and Amsterdam, and capacity reductions ensued both in 1959 and this year. The Zurich route has shown very little growth over the seven years. By contrast the domestic trunk routes, in terms of passengers served, have grown to occupy a dominating role. Yet the Toothill Committee report and, representations received by the Air Trans port Licensing Board, indicate that the demand still has not been satisfied. The increases scheduled in the morning and evening "golden hours" on the Glasgow and Manchester routes are 33 per cent and 80 per cent respectively, all the more notable as no adver tising for weekday domestic services has been undertaken since September 1960. There must be few routes where the pent-up demand seems to be large enough to fill such increases in capacity without any selling effort. It is intriguing to recall the reassurances about adequacy made by BEA at the ATLB hearings in August 1961. Sector rail traffic London-Glasgow in 1961 is estimated to have been about 400,000; and a slight decline between 1959 and 1960 was reported at the ATLB hearing. Thus it is possible that the total of 320,000 sector passengers carried by BEA in 1961 will grow suffi ciently to overtake the railway carryings this year—a most significant event. The total of 996 daily seats London-Glasgow is bringing BEA towards the top of the league for the biggest capacity provided by one carrier on any air route in the world. The present leader is Eastern, with 1,520 one-way seats scheduled on the New York- Boston no reservations "Air Shuttle Service," plus 594 on the parallel "Golden Falcon" services. The Varig-REAL consortium put on about 1,500 seats daily from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo, and JAL about 1,120 from Tokyo to Osaka. Surely if an "Air Shuttle" service elsewhere generates the 33 per cent increase in sector traffic that Eastern report (see Flight International March 1), and potential passengers are being left behind now, is not London- Glasgow ripe for conversion to a "no booking" basis? Minor Concluded at foot of page 473 REA now schedules more seats on London-Glasgow than on any other of its routes. The basis of this graph is number of seats scheduled on weekdays (empha sizing the business demand) in the summer seasons 1956-62 1 1961 ' • / 1 EXCESS 7^-NC CAPACITY? / /~7 )8 / // /// / / / GLASGOW ?nn - AMSTERDAM—L ZURICH-- MANCHtS' 100 1 COPENHAGEt
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