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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0374.PDF
356 FLIGHT International, 14 March 1963 One of the most unusual and interesting civil aircraft to visit the UK in recent times is this Douglas C-74 Globemaster, HP.385, one of two owned by Aeronaves de Panama. The two aircraft operate a regular ferry-service carrying live cattle between Copenhagen and Teheran, and the aircraft seen here at Prestwick was on a positioning fight from Mexico to Copenhagen. One of the C-74s visited Southend on March 5 on charter by H. Clarkson (Air and Shipping Services) to lift live cattle from Amman AIR COMMERCE . . . BKS's TURNOVER— DURING the first ten months that BKS Air Transport and BKS Engineering's affairs were in the hands of receivers, the two com panies improved their overall financial position by about £127,000, and the revised joint deficiency as regards creditors at December 1, 1961, of £532,018 was reduced by September 30, 1962, to £404,564. As a result of this encouraging trend, the receivers are proposing a further legal deferment on present debts which they are confident the companies, given time, should be able to repay in full out of revenues, and enable BKS to re-establish itself on a sound business footing. Figures of this sort about independents rarely come to light in the normal way. As Mr A. J. Lucking pointed out in a letter to The Times on March 6, BKS's £127,000 profit was reported a few days after the ATLB had granted the company fare increases up to 18 per cent. According to The Financial Times, £573,026 of the two BKS companies' present indebtedness can be made the subject of a moratorium which the receivers forecast could be repayed within five years. The remaining indebtedness should be discharged by September 30, 1963, when the receivers' appointment would terminate. For the immediate future, BKS are planning a 20 per cent increase in the number of Elizabethan flights on their London - Newcastle route and the introduction of weekend flights on the popular London - Leeds/Bradford route flown by Avro 748s. The 748 is also being introduced on the twice-weekly Leeds/Bradford - Bel fast route. If the overall load factor remains the same despite the universally applied increase in domestic air fares of up to 18 per cent, BKS should have a significant increase in total revenue during the coming year. —AND TURNROUNDS AN Avro 748 in service with BKS Air Transport Ltd has achieved a 9min turnround at London Heathrow. Flight BK 401 from Leeds/Bradford to London on March 6 was delayed at departure point by adverse weather, and consequently the Avro 748 was 20 min late arriving at London Airport. At 0920 the aircraft taxied in and the engines were switched off. Thirty-eight passengers disembarked and their luggage was un loaded. The cabin was cleared, the galley serviced, the aircraft re-fuelled, baggage loaded, and 31 passengers embarked in the next nine minutes. This turnround enabled the outward schedule timing to be maintained. Since BKS introduced the Avro 748 their passenger traffic, it is claimed, has increased by 94 per cent. BEA DO NOT WANT A SUBSIDY LAST week it became known that BEA have decided after all that they do not want a subsidy for their Highlands and Islands routes. Last September, it will be recalled, Lord Douglas said that BEA were going to apply for a subsidy to cover their losses on these social routes. More recently, as reported in Flight International for January 24, page 109, a sum of £lm has been mentioned as the amount which BEA might require to put these services on a proper footing. It was in 1959 that BEA agreed with a parliamentary select committee's recommendation that these services should be sub sidized. Then, in April 1960, Lord Douglas said that BEA did not, after all, want a subsidy. They changed their view in September 1962; and now they have changed their minds again—though only, it is believed, in respect of the 1962-63 year. The decision obviously makes sense for BEA. Commercially, it means that these social services will have to be cross-subsidized, an economic practice to which BEA are not particularly enamoured. But politically it means that it is now impossible for the Minister to put these services out to tender, and it assures BEA's freedom from the Government interference that a subsidy always entails. It also means that BEA will continue to do a job which they do well and enjoy; and it gives them a certain moral superiority in licensing battles—as a public corporation which is prepared to take the social-service rough with the smooth. PLAIN WORDS ON AIR UNION WHILE Europe is "building a free trading association of now six and ultimately perhaps 20 contiguous countries, determined to subject themselves to the cold shower of competition so as to spur their own economic and political growth, four European air carriers have banded together to form an association, Air Union, dedicated to achieving precisely the reverse." These are the words of Mr Hans Heymann, an economist for The Rand Corporation. He was addressing the sixth public relations conference of IATA in Washington last November (the full text has just been published by IATA), and he went on to say of Air Union:— "Instead of enlarging the scope for competition within Europe they want to limit it; instead of rationalizing the internal European services, they seek to freeze the status quo. Their aim is a gigantic commercial pooling arrangement with strict market quotas shared out to its participants, in the worst tradition of the restrictionist cartel." These words are, of course, taken out of the full context of Mr Heymann's address, which we hope to publish in full in a later EURAVIA'S BIG "IT" BID APPLICATIONS for more than 30 B licences for summer 1964 inclusive tours have been lodged with the ATLB by Euravia. In addition to flights from the company's Luton base to European summer resorts, licences for flights from Glasgow (Renfrew or Prestwick), Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff, Leeds/Bradford and Liverpool have been applied for. Because the applicant considers these applications to be "of a special nature" it is anticipated that hearings will take place in April or May. Euravia say that the public demand for Sky Tours holidays far exceeds the capacity licensed. Eros and the Herald It is understood that Eros Airline's plans to purchase Dart Heralds are still very active and that contract negotations are at an advanced stage. A number of the airline's pilots have recently been at Radlett for preliminary training.
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