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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2383.PDF
626 FLIGHT International, 18 October 1962 The apron at Schiphol has become so busy and confusing to passengers that the authorities have painted the way ahead for the passengers AIR COMMERCE... TWA IN TOWN PAN AMERICAN and TWA have not yet been able to complete the terms of a merger and no contract has yet been submitted to the respective boards. This was stated in London last week by Mr Floyd D. Hall, senior vice-president and system general manager of TWA. According to Mr Hall, discussions have been going on between the two companies since March but no progress has been made. If agreement were reached, however, it might be only six months before a merger, which TWA would welcome providing the terms were acceptable. Mr Hall said that in the first eight months of this year TWA's international operations earned a profit of nearly $9m compared with the loss of $5m in the same period last year. More than $7m had, however, been lost on US domestic services. The company's transatlantic traffic had increased by more than 35 per cent over the January-August period of 1961. Mr Hall gave the airline industry- average traffic increase on the North Atlantic as 22.6 per cent. CHANNEL ISLAND FARES UP? A RECENT application to the ATLB from BEA, British United and a number of other independents to raise fares to the Channel Islands may well be the first of a series of proposals to increase UK domestic fares. The application is for increases of 10 to 20 per cent and it was submitted to the Board after private talks between the corporation and the independents. So far as can be ascertained this is the first time since the 1960Licensing Act that there has been prior agreement between BEA and the independents on an application for UK domestic price increases. It is intriguing to speculate on whether the initiative came from BEA or from British United; either way the proposed increases do not project the corporation and independent images projected in the past in the course of licensing and appeal battles. This is obviously something that the ATLB will have to think about quite carefully in considering whether to approve the proposed increases. Corporation-independent fixing of fares, particularly domestic fares, could make rather a mockery of corporation- independent competition, and hence of the Board set up to regulate it. In an explanatory statement issued after the applications were made, and to correct impressions that BEA were the only applicant, a BEA spokesman said: "Obviously such unanimity of application can only have been reached after talks—however informal—between the interested airlines. We are all suffering from increases of costs and we have all held down the Channel Islands fares for the last five years . . . Naturally, none of the British airlines, large or small, enjoys putting up fares but we feel we must do so at present." MR WATKINS' LECTURE IN a year of staggering financial losses by the world's airlines there could have been no more appropriate subject for the 18th British Commonwealth Lecture than the development of Australia's internal air transport. Despite acute difficulties in getting the right- sized equipment to match routes and traffic, TAA and their independent competitors Ansett-ANA have consistently made profits on Australian domestic services. The lecture, delivered before the Royal Aeronautical Society on October 11, was read by Mr John L. Watkins, director of engineering, Trans-Australia Airlines. Mr Watkins began his most instructive lecture by tracing the growth pattern of Australian air transport. He used maps to illustrate the expanding route structure and capacity offered, and an interesting account was given of the changing aircraft character istics during the four decades since Western Australian Airways operated the first service, from Geraldton to Derby, with Bristol Tourers. After praising the thoroughness of the Department of Civil Aviation's statistical records, Mr Watkins discussed the present relatively favourable financial situation and the "special features" of Australia's "two-airline system." At this time of intense rivalry between the world's airlines, it was instructive to be reminded of the statutory framework drawn up over a year ago between the Com monwealth Government and the two airlines, a framework intended to limit vigorous competition in the interests of long-term stability:—• (a) Both TAA and Ansett-ANA agreed not to order jets before November 18, 1962, or to bring them into service before July 1, 1964. (b) The Commonwealth to guarantee loans of up to £6m to enable Ansett-ANA to have comparable equipment to TAA. (c) The Commonwealth's regulatory powers over aircraft types and capacities (under the 1958 Airlines Equipment Act) to be extended for the full term of the new agreement. (d) The Commonwealth to undertake not to increase air naviga tion charges by more than 10 per cent in any 12 months. In spite of TAA's very low operating costs by world standards, there was, Mr Watkins said, a wide fare-differential between the airlines and the high-quality service of Australian Railways. The engineering department of TAA had conducted many design studies into low-cost vehicles, and Mr Watkins said they had discarded the possibility of a 10 per cent cut in operating costs with a 94-seat twin-turboprop on the grounds that the drop in quality of service would be unacceptable to the market. Ansett- ANA and TAA were now hard at work selecting the right tri-jet by-pass transport for introduction in 18 months, and it was felt that these aircraft might eventually be operated at costs slightly less than now. Looking 15 years ahead, he examined VTOL develop ments of the tri-jet. After mentioning that Australia had spent £20m with the British aircraft industry in the past eight years, Mr Watkins concluded by
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