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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0821.PDF
SLIGHT International, 24 May 1962 819 know the two big problems of this airline?" one pilot had asked. "Engineering and politics." Politics, of course, are every airline's problem. So is engineering • to varying degrees. For Bahamas Airways engineering is a quality product; but it is a problem of the highest degree. This is manifest in the eyebrow-raising cost of one DC-3 hour—£73, of which no less than £31 is accounted for by engineering. Vis count maintenance costs are not available for publication, but they are believed to be even more burdensome. Only Viscount checks 1 and 2 are tackled; checks 3 are subcontracted to United Air Lines, and Dart overhauls to Airwork International, NJ. According to one senior executive, Bahamas Airways pay almost twice for maintenance, and must do so for as long as expensive expatriate staff have to be employed. The trouble is not engineering and politics so much as engineering-politics. For example, when a Bahamas Airways skipper wants full flap he calls out "PLP" —the initials of the Bahamian coloured people's Progressive Liberal Party, whose slogan is All The Way. And "all the way" it must be in the Bahamianization of the airline. The process is costly, particularly in the engineering department, where there is as yet not one licensed engineer among the 90 Bahamians employed. Picked men are being trained to carry the responsibilities which a dozen costly expatriates (British and American, earning up to £45 a week, plus an average of £15 for medical, housing, education and transport allowances) now carry under Mr Jack Blitz, the chief engineer, who is one of BOAC corps d'elite of overseas engi neers. Two Bahamians are on a two-year course at the Dade County Aviation School in Miami, costing the airline about £3,500 a year. Two more will follow, and others are being sent to the UK for training. The process of Bahamianization should obviously have been started years ago; it is now, not a moment too soon, in hand; and Air Cdre Powell, who was put in as chairman and managing direc tor soon after BOAC repossessed BAL early last year, is philoso phical about the expense: "It will," he says, "be cheaper in the long run." On engineering in general he says: "Nearly everything was subcontracted when I came. Now we are doing pretty well everything ourselves, including srrall components. There is a big difference after only a year. Give us two more and we'll be able to take on anything." The reasoning behind BAL's plans to replace Viscounts and DC-3s with Friendships, and for these aircraft to be maintained in Miami (where, at present, engineering works out 60 per cent cheaper), becomes apparent. The Bahamas Airways climate is charged with salt as well as with politics, and this too puts up the maintenance bill. "We take every precaution known to man," says Mr Blitz, "but this atmos phere gives us a terrible corrosion problem." It adds perhaps 25 per cent to the man-hours required for each check; more panels have to be opened, an especially close watch must be kept on steel control cables, and underskinning has to be carefully scrutinized for corrosion. A programme of applying acid-etch primer to under- surfaces is in hand. 4 ink i !'- J •••— *.<*———^^^Jgfljjfll ^Imf^wtmM a -'4fll ^ *-. ;__ - 6w> • 15 5 *&'-M — -™-*32^t***-~ The two Aero Commander 500As (one pilot plus five seats) were bought second-hand on lease-purchase last September. They are used almost entirely for charter business, priced at about $90 an hour compared with about $130 an hour for the four-seat Gooses which they have replaced. The combination of US registration and British flag is unusual All maintenance was previously done in the open, and staff supervision was a real problem. A new hangar, big enough for four DC-3sv was opened in February and since then there has been better control of staff—and work no longer stops when it rains. The hangar cost £44,000, all of which of course goes on the engi neering budget. "All these things wouldn't add up to much in a large organization," says Mr Blitz, "but they do in a small one like ours." * * * There are strong arguments for and against the operation by Bahamas Airways of international services to Florida. Here lies the fount and origin of nearly all the colony's tourists—and it might be thought that an airline with the name Bahamas Airways would be the protected chosen instrument, carrying half the traffic. In fact, BAL is number four Florida-Bahamas carrier, with 13 per cent of the traffic in 1961, and it is far from protected. The Bahamas Government has often seemed indifferent towards the airline that carries its flag, an indifference that probably reached a peak in 1959 when Eagle were allowed on the Nassau - Miami route, where there were already too many unfilled seats. Goodwill towards BAL had run pretty low, and for this the old BOAC must accept at least some responsibility. Even today BAL has not lived down the BOAC decision in 1958 to discontinue Miami services, which were not operated at all in 1959. It had been hoped that things would be different after Sir George Cribbett of BOAC-AC sold out 90 per cent of the corporation's interest to private enter prise. But this was not to be. The experiment, hopefully and honestly entered into (with BOAC no doubt fortified by the success ful, and not so dissimilar, Cathay Pacific Airways deal in Hong Kong), ended in financial disaster. Pan American interests moved in with a proposal to form a company called Royal Bahamian Airways (later renamed Monarch Airways) to operate inter-island services with three DC-3s. It is hard to believe, but this proposal was supported by big names in the Bahamas Government. Cunard Eagle also made an offer. BOAC repossessed, in the nick of time, a defeated and demoralized airline that was losing £1,000 a day and was within a hair's breadth This composition of three pictures of the ramp at Windsor Field, Nassau, shows aircraft of the five key airlines—BOAC Britannia, BAL Viscount, PanAm DC-7, Cunard Eagle Viscount, Mackey DC-6. Boeing 707s of BOAC, PanAm and Cunard Eagle are using the 7,600ft runway 14/32 while 09/27 (9,000ft) is being resurfaced. A useful source of revenue for BAL is derived from contracts to handle other operators, mainly the 80-odd movements a week of BOAC and PanAm
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