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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0933.PDF
FLIGHT International, 14 June 1962 The Test Appeal Continued here is a summary of the important appeals against last year's domestic route awards of the Air Transport Licensing Board. It has been necessary to sacrifice topicality in order to maintain a reasonably full record of the proceedings. r R Starways, Mr Nance contended that the company's applications for services from Hawarden to Belfast, Dublin and Jersey were not as the second operator on an established route but for pioneering operations on new routes concerned with the development of a new civil airport. Starways intended to serve an area in which no air services had hitherto been provided, but where they were confident they could generate new traffic. Hawarden was the only airport available for civil use in the whole of North Wales, an area from which access to Liverpool and Manchester was difficult and time-consuming. It had a good runway extensively used by de Havilland (owners of the airport) for testing Comets. Provided they were guaranteed a certain income from landing fees de Havilland's were prepared to spend money on improving the operational facilities and Starways were prepared to spend money on passenger facilities. Starways were already flying via Hawarden on the London-Liverpool service and would operate the thrice-weekly frequency at present licensed between Hawarden and the Isle of Man during the coming summer. In April 1961, Sir Miles Thomas, as chairman of the Welsh Advisory Committee for Civil Aviation, had written to the Board wholeheartedly supporting Starways* applications and suggesting that the need for the services was so self-evident that it would not be necessary for the Welsh Advisory Committee to be personally represented at the hearing. Stronger support than this, said Mr Nance, could not be given and if these Advisory Committees were to serve any useful purpose, support of this kind should have been given every consideration by the Board. Mr Nance said there was a confused idea that the area which would be served by Hawarden could equally well be served through Liverpool (Speke) or Manchester (Ringway), but this was not the case. The Board had, said Mr Nance, overstressed the use of Liverpool as an alternative to Hawarden, without taking account of the difficulty of getting from Chester to Liverpool. Mr Quinton Hazel, an industrialist who was chairman of the North Wales Executive of the Industrial Association of North Wales and Mon mouthshire, and also a member of the Welsh Advisory Committee for Civil Aviation, said that the whole pattern of life in North Wales was changing its emphasis from a dependence on holiday business and quarrying to industry; factories had been set up by Hotpoint, Ferodo, Courtaulds and others. He, the Welsh Advisory Committee and its chairman had been shocked by the turning down of all but a very small part of the applications when they had given their unreserved support to Hawarden airport. Stanrays Liverpool - London Capt Leigh, for Starways, said that they had been making the permitted stop at Hawarden since April 2, on the early morning nights from Liverpool to London, the midday flights in both direc tions and the evening flights from London to Liverpool. They had no traffic rights between Liverpool and Hawarden. Results for the first month's operation via Hawarden had been surprisingly encouraging; 35 per cent of the passengers on the Liverpool - Hawarden-London service were from Hawarden and 85-90 per cent of the Hawarden passengers came from Chester or the North Wales area. These satisfactory results had led Starways to apply to the Board for nine more flights per week via Hawarden. Mr McDonnell said that Cunard Eagle were appealing against the restriction of the licence granted to four flights per week on Saturdays only between June 1 and September 30; they had applied to start at seven flights per week without restriction as to days of operation and with freedom to operate all the year round. In their appeal they were asking for seven flights weekly on a seasonal basis and for the right to operate on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday in addition to Saturday. Mr McDonnell said that BUA had brought evidence to show that there was a general shortage of capacity to Jersey at the end of July; Dan-Air had given evidence oi increasing demand on the route and Jersey Airlines had them selves brought evidence of an increasing demand not met by existing operators. Mr Bamberg said that restriction to Saturdays only would com plicate operational planning and might make the operation of even their restricted licensed capacity impossible. If Cunard Eagle were allowed, said Mr Bamberg, to operate seven flights weekly in the summer and one in the winter they would, in the years 1963-64 to 1965-66, carry 46,832 passengers, which would be only 2.9 per cent of the total estimated traffic for the same three years, which was 1,675,696. Mr Marking of BEA reminded Mr Bamberg that Mr Ashton Hill had said at the hearing before the Board that he had no evidence of inadequacy of existing services; had Mr Bamberg? BEA were not appealing against Cunard Eagle's Saturday licence but were opposing their application to operate on other days and at increased frequency. Mr Bamberg could give no specific evidence of inade quacy of capacity although he argued that it did, in fact, exist. Mr Marking said BEA welcomed the supplementary capacity Cunard Eagle had been licensed to provide on the 13 peak Saturdays of the year; however, it was on BEA that the Islanders relied for regular air services all the year round. BUA, Dan-Air, Jersey Airlines and East Anglian Flying Services were also licensed for weekend operations in the summer, and there was no justification for any more services than had already been licensed by the Board. Mr McDonnell said that Mr Marking was relying on the old heresy of BEA's special responsibilities. BEA had none in relation to the Channel Islands and had given no evidence of any voluntary assumption of special responsibilities. Nor was Jersey Airlines under any compulsion to operate year-round services. The London - Glasgow Appeal Mr Gardiner, for Cunard Eagle, said his clients were appealing against the reduction of frequency from that for which they had applied—initially 14 per week, increasing with traffic demand— and BEA were appealing against the grant of any licence at all to Cunard Eagle. It was generally accepted, said Mr Gardiner, that present services were quite inadequate to cope with traffic expected in the years to come. Quoting estimates of forward traffic from various sources, Mr Gardiner said there was very little difference between the Cunard Eagle estimate of 750,000 passengers in 1965-66 and the 688,000 estimated by BEA. Mr Bamberg's evidence confirmed that Cunard Eagle's operating plan produced to the Board, showing an estimated initial frequency of seven flights weekly in 1962-63 increasing to 14 in 1965-66, had not been intended to modify their application for frequency in creasing in accordance with traffic demand. He said that even if Cunard Eagle were to operate five flights daily throughout the year their estimated traffic for the three years 1963-64 to 1965-66 would be 305,550 compared with BEA's total cumulative growth during the same period of 473,000. Mr Marking challenged the suggestion that BEA's services were inadequate but Mr Bamberg said that history showed that BEA's services had not been adequate in the past and there was no certainty that they would be in the future. Mr Marking later said that BEA's plans showed provision for 700,000 seats in 1964 and there was no evidence that passengers would exceed that number. Mr Collingwood's evidence for BEA consisted of the usual chart of traffic trends on the route, amended in view of a slight decline in 1961-62 when only 346,000 passengers were carried instead of the 354,000 forecast; a statement of the reduction in summer load factor from 78 per cent in 1960-61 to 74 per cent in 1961-62, and from 69 per cent to 66 per cent in the winter; the opinion that a 74 per cent load factor was acceptable on any route, particularly a high frequency route, and the usual calculation of the diversion of revenue from BEA to Cunard Eagle in 1965-66. This he worked out to be £178,000 on the basis of the assumptions of the Air Transport Licensing Board, a figure which BEA's amendments raised to £327,000 by substituting 108-seat Britannia capacity, increasing the assumed load factor to 70 per cent and including an allowance for freight and mail. This was on the basis of one flight daily in each direction; a frequency of five flights daily would mean that the diversion would be five times as great. Mr Gardiner then quoted at length Flight International's article for March 29,1962, entitled "Domestic Routes Lead," which argued the need for a non-ticketed London - Glasgow service. [To be concluded]
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