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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0231.PDF
FLIGHT International, 14 February 1963 221 The Board's Secret Session IN private session last week the Air Transport Licensing Board examined BEA's proposals for the introduction on April 1 of one- third discount "standby" fares on domestic routes. It is common practice for the ATLB to hold private hearings into the financial resources of licensees; the usual reason for secrecy in these cases, controversial though it may be, is that the financial affairs of private airlines are private. But why, it may be asked, should BEA's plans for standby services, one of the most important new developments in UK domestic air transport, be examined in secret? It is understood that the request for privacy came from the Board, not from BEA, who would have had no objection to a public hearing. At last month's ATLB hearing of applications by BEA and the independents for domestic fare increases, BEA's application for standby fares was down for consideration at the same time. A number of Board members, in particular Mr Harvey, Mr Wilson and Sir Friston How, began to question BEA on their standby fare proposals; but just as the discussion began to warm up, and as Mr Henry Marking of BEA looked like going into the matter in some detail, Professor Jack, the chairman, interrupted to say he would rather Mr Marking continued with his main submission, leaving dis cussion of standby fares for "another occasion." In the event BEA's standby fare proposals have been discussed in secret, even though there is no reason to believe that anybody wishes to conceal anything. When the Board approves the plan, which it almost certainly will, full details will be published by BEA. In the meantime it is possible only to speculate on the sort of questions that were asked. For ex ample, why have BEA, with nearly half their Vanguard fleet sur plus in the coming year, and with surplus Viscount capacity also, not gone for a scheme similar to that of Eastern's Air Shuttle— —a true walk-on service with standby aircraft and a guaranteed seat? So successful do these services appear to have been that Eastern are now introducing them, under the name Walk-On, on all their Houston-New Orleans services—and not with surplus piston capacity, but with DC-8 jets. In Europe, on the same day that BEA propose to introduce their more cautious standby ser vices, Lufthansa are to begin Eastern-style walk-on services with Super Constellations between Hamburg and Frankfurt (Flight International, January 3, page 8). If Eastern and Lufthansa can do it, the Board might have asked, why not BEA? BEA have answers to these questions; they would probably say that the differences between Eastern and BEA booking-costs tend to invalidate any economic comparison of no-booking services run by the two air lines. BEA might also point to the very high cost of maintaining standby crews—though this cost would not be any higher than that of Eastern. The brief exchange on standby fares at the ATLB's domestic fares increase hearing, which was brought to an abrupt end by the chairman, began when Mr Marking said that if the scheme was a roaring success BEA would extend it and if it failed they would suspend it. What did BEA mean, Mr Harvey asked, by "successful," because if it were too successful, would it not reduce revenues? Mr Marking replied that by success BEA meant the achievement of an overall increase in revenue. Presumably, a Board member asked, BEA did not propose to run standby services in the winter months because the odds against success were greater? Replying in the affirmative, Mr Marking went on to say that BEA were aware of the possiblity of hundreds of passengers sitting around waiting; this would be inconvenient for everybody and BEA had devised a procedure to avoid it. The number of standby passengers would, he said, be limited according to a last-minute check by the clerk. Asked by a Board member whether passengers would not still be "milling around" at the airport, Mr Marking said that they would be at the terminal. Sir Friston How asked how BEA would differentiate between the passenger waiting at the terminal and the passenger waiting at the airport. It was at this point, as Mr Marking—producing a weighty document—said "we've got it all worked out," that Professor Jack asked BEA to continue with their main submission. [ATLB's fares decision: page 218.] THE THREE-CLASS EXPERIMENT IN the first four months of the experimental three-class seating system being tried out by American, Continental, TWA and United on the Chicago - Kansas City - Denver - Los Angeles route, total revenue rose only 16 per cent, whereas total traffic was almost 30 per cent higher than in the same period in 1961. Application has been made to the CAB for permission to carry on with the scheme until October 26,1963. No figures have been released of the capacity or schedule changes that may have accompanied this rise, or the load factors, and no indication has yet been given of whether the experiment is achiev ing its object of increasing revenue at a faster rate than expenditure. It may be recalled that United applied to the CAB for permission to introduce, next month, one-class jet services costing 5 per cent more than present coach-class. This completely opposite solution to the same problem that led Continental to experiment with a three-class system shows the dilemma in which airlines are finding themselves in matching fares and quality of service to the market in order to maximize revenues, and in particular to arrest the trend from high yield first-class fares to coach-class (see diagram below). PanAm's 1962 Results Pan American increased their revenue passenger-miles in 1962 by 18 per cent to nearly 7.3m. Cargo ton-miles went up 22 per cent—the largest growth in the airline's history—to about 200m ton-miles, including a 25 per cent increase in North Atlantic cargo traffic. Twin-engine Helicopter Requirements Section G of the British Civil Airworthiness Requirements for Rotorcraft has now been reissued to cater for the certification of multi-turbine-engined rotorcraft intended for public transport. Copies may be obtained from the Air Registration Board, Technical Publications Dept, Greville House, 37 Gratton Road, Cheltenham, Glos, price 10s. How to Design Heliports An article in the February 1 issue of Engineering gives details of experiments completed at Gatwick by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research building research station in co-operation with BEA and the Ministry of Aviation. An experimental lft-thick platform, 30ft square, was built at BEA's Experimental Helicopter Unit and subjected to tests by a Westland Whirlwind, including the dropping of a helicopter from a crane to simulate heavy landings. Trend in the US domestic airline indus try of first-class and tourist-class traffic (source ATA annual report for 1961). See note above "The Three-class Experiment" 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
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