FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1869.PDF
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6 1962 Number 2791 Volume 82 Editor-in-Chief IAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GU NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMS DE N Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H.N. PRIAULX MBE In this issue World News 378 Air Commerce 381 Missiles & space-night 389 RB.162 394 Straight and Level 3 96 Twenty-third SBAC Show 397 Success In the Export Markets 409 The Flying-display Pilots 417 Service Aviation 421 Letters 42 2 Sport & Business 423 Industry International 424 lliffa Transport Publications Lid, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137). Telegrams Flightpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canada and USA S15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, New Street, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3: telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 62 Bucha nan Street, Glasgow CI; telephone Centra] 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway- 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Illffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1962. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1908 No Blarney in Dublin N EXT Monday, September 10, the Top People of the world's airlines meet in Dublin for the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association. Many of them will have visited Farnborough and will have seen, if not sampled, the latest transport aeroplanes that Britain is offering. They will have plenty to occupy them, because, for all their social conviviality, these annual IATA occasions are no mere junkets. Extending to five days, they are obviously costly; and this is a point which will not fail to draw banter and gibes from IATA's critics—especially during a year in which the world air transport industry is losing money as it has never lost it before. Nevertheless, it is clear that the airline presidents and senior executives who are coming to Dublin from every part of the world con sider it worthwhile absenting themselves from the workaday demands of air transport. The IATA meetings present a unique opportunity to talk shop, not only at the working sessions, but informally also. Important results can stem from this shop-talk, affecting not only equipment programmes and manufacturers' order books, but, more especially, basic economics and fare policies. There is scarcely an airline chief who could not draw out of the hat the name of another with whom he would have something to talk about to mutual advantage—especially, this year, on the subject of fares. BEA Sum It Up At last week's annual BEA news conference Lord Douglas was, quite understandably, badgered and even hectored by the Press on what he proposes to do about the vicious cost-circle in which all airlines—not only British—now find themselves. There is, as everybody knows, much too much capacity, both in the air and idle on the ground. This was clearly foreseen by many observers of the notorious 1955-56 jet-buying spree— and also by the International Civil Aviation Organization. But "I told you so" hindsight contributes little (though it would be seemly if only one airline would candidly admit that the present crisis comes as no surprise). BEA, in their annual report, remark: "From an economic point of view the jet revolution is characterized by two vital factors. First is the pressure towards a total replacement of non-jet by jet aircraft on all main line services; this has given rise to the problem of premature obsolescence, and also, with the use of obsolescent non-jet aircraft on cut-price services, it has aggravated the problem of excess capacity. The second general economic feature of the jet revolution is that it has been associated with a large increase in the size, as well as the speed, of aircraft used on main line services." There, in a nutshell, are the reasons for the crisis. To surmount it the airlines must produce more traffic, and this they can do by reducing fares. But how can prices be lowered by an industry which, because of over-capacity, is so heavily in deficit? Some airlines have taken the law —IATA's law, that is—into their own hands by offering under-the-counter discounts; and this "cheating," as it is described by some of the other airlines, is clearly threatening IATA's authority. Yet, distasteful though IATA's price ring may be, it is far less distasteful than a fare structure imposed by governments. IATA has had many crises before, but never, perhaps, one quite comparable with this. So in Ireland next week there will have to be some straight talking—and we hope no blarney—about the need for fare reductions.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
