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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0861.PDF
FLIGHT International, 31 May 1962 859 I T seems likely that the early sixties will long be remembered by international airlines as the years of the buyers' market, a period characterized by the consequences of jet over-equip ment No one needs to be reminded of the impact this has had on the front line operators. Low load factors, poor aircraft utilization and financial worries have become the order of the day. But the impact of excess capacity has been felt not only by the big boys, but by the whole industry. The problems facing the smaller airlines are exemplified by the current experience of the South African independent, Trek Airways. And a report on this company is particularly appropriate to the pages of this journal for a study on the development of this enter prising airline appeared in Flight for March 4, 1960 ("The Price Pioneers"), and it was there forecast that the company's severest test would be experienced when the ripples of scheduled excess capacity came to be felt in the backwaters of non-scheduled air transport. Yesterday's forecast has become today's fact, and Trek would openly admit that life has its little difficulties. However, the directors and their staff are no strangers to struggle. Indeed their philosophy is the pure milk of private enterprise—that competition does them good. And this philosophy, let it be remembered, springs from almost a decade's exposure to the untempered blasts of competition. Curiously enough, the first effect of the new era of the buyers' market was wholly beneficial to Trek in that it resulted in the easy availability of modern used aircraft in the shape of two ex-South African Airways L.749A Constellations. The leisurely type of service upon which Trek specializes is not conducive to the opera tion of the latest, most expensive aircraft; utilization rates can never be high enough to recover the substantial capital charges involved. Also, complete reliability is an essential feature of Trek's long-haul Trek Airways operate two Constellation L749As, leased from SAA, on their routes between Europe and the Union of South Africa Airline Profile / NUMBER FIVE IN THE SERIES Trek Airways By P. Muller operation and this dictates the use of fully proved machines. The faster speed of the Connie as compared with the DC-4 has permitted Trek to offer more time at night-stops at such places as Entebbe, Cairo, Malta and Vienna, where services now arrive early rather than late in the afternoon (allowing time, for instance, for a pleasant jaunt out to see the inscrutable smile of the Sphinx), and depart at a more civilized hour of the morning. Pressurization is also an improvement, allowing greater scope for dodging Africa's characteristic turbulence, although the company continues to use low cruising altitudes whenever feasible in the belief that passengers enjoy picking out the details of the fascinating continent which lies below. To judge from the map-reading that goes on in the cabin, and the wholesale evacuation of seats which follows the commander's announcement of a passing landmark, this particular belief is amply justified. Yet the ready availability of modern used aircraft has not been entirely advantageous to Trek, for it has also strengthened the hands of rival companies, particularly in Europe, which are anxious to participate in the movement of air traffic between southern Africa and Western Europe. It is this, perhaps more than any other factor, which accounts for the current boom in charter flying on these routes. For the first time, European independents have more long-haul equipment than can be employed on their intra-European operations. They are therefore looking further afield and exploring what opportunities there are under the fairly tight regulatory system which governs non-scheduled air services. It so happens that the two biggest markets—North America - Europe and Australia - Europe—are fairly well buttoned up by restrictions imposed at either end. In the case of southern Africa, however, there are a number of inviting backdoors. At the European end, Luxembourg and Germany have traditionally been liberal towards the granting of landing rights. This has been no accident but a logical con sequence of the past absence of a national carrier competing for the same traffic. The widest loophole at the African end has been the readiness of the Portuguese authorities to grant traffic rights in Portuguese East Africa, Lourenco Marques (LM for short) being a convenient jumping off point for Johannesburg or Durban. Yet another loophole has been the hoary airline dodge of mas querading one's passengers as members of a closed group, and so obtaining traffic rights which would otherwise have been refused. As a result of cut-price quotations being offered by European in dependents, new clubs have been springing up in recent months in South Africa at a rate estimated unofficially as high as two a week. Nor is the bogus club the only opportunity; another class of traffic amenable to "development" is immigrant travel, South Africa's national policy of encouraging European immigration often having given an excuse to the operator whose real interest lay in the tourist market. By various means, European independents have been managing to build up a substantial volume of business. So spectacular has been this development that a leading Johannesburg newspaper was recently moved to carry out a special investigation which showed that the European charter operators are hoping to offer approxi mately twice as much accommodation this year as will Trek Airways. The principal characters in this act are International Air (Paris - Johannesburg,-Continentale Flugdiens), Travellers Facilities Club (Europe - Johannesburg, Balair), Overseas Visitors Club (Caledonian In addition to their two Constellations, Trek also operate this DC-4 on contract to Luxair
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