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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0803.PDF
772 FLIGHT International, 30 May 1963 Wideroe's Flyveselskap's Nord 260 LN-LMB at Southend Airport on April 23. It flies frequently into Southend and Manchester on charter operations and by May 4 had completed 450 hours' flying with Wideroe's Flyveselskap. The purchase of a second Nord 260 is being negotiated and the company has an option on two pressurized Nord 262 AIR COMMERCE... by promotion, and by excessive services. Thus they will tend to offer a larger number of flights than are demanded at the going price. The net result is economic waste reflected in excessive costs for fulfilling that demand. Since in such a situation competition fails to perform its policing function, we must look to regulation." The US evidence of the past ten years suggests that the degree of regulation imposed by the Civil Aeronautics Board has not been adequate to counteract these adverse consequences of oligopolistic competition. The main purpose of this article has been to argue against the over-simplified precepts presented in "BEA and Britain": I do not want to leave the impression that I am now saying that there is no place whatever for competition in airline operations. You may recall that in a lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society in December 19601 said: "I fully accept the assumption that there are circumstances in which airline competition, within an effective system of economic regulation, may provide a valuable stimulus to more efficient operations and to the provision of better service to the public. It is the responsibility of any licensing board to ensure that competition is encouraged only where and when it is likely to have these beneficial results." What now seems to me to be quite clear from the evidence advanced in this article is that the conditions in which airline competition may have beneficial results may be very strictly limited. The US evidence certainly ought to give our own Air Transport Licensing Board cause to ponder the possible consequences of some of their decisions. FARES-WAR AFTERMATH LAST week, while one European country after another told Pan American and TWA to "raise fares or else," the United States Senate Commerce Committee, taunted by crowing foreign Press reports about America "backing down," was pushing through Congress the bill to strengthen the hand of the Civil Aeronautics Board. This bill will give the CAB the power to approve foreign- airline fares and to fine carriers applying disapproved IATA rates. Although the bill has still to be approved by the full Senate and by the House of Representatives, the CAB is expected to have its long-sought power by the time the present fares truce ends next September 30. Probably this power would not have helped the CAB's point of view to prevail against the united opposition of foreign airlines in the recent battle. But in future, the CAB's influence over IATA will not merely, as in the past, be persuasive, but actually decisive. The CAB may have genuinely felt that on economic and public- interest grounds IATA's 5 per cent increase in North Atlantic return fares was worth a showdown; but it also knew that the showdown would impress Congress into granting it the power to enforce international fares. During the Senate Commerce Committee debate, the chairman, Senator Magnuson, said that the CAB should also be given the power to limit the number of landings in the United States by foreig n airlines. Other nations had this power, he said, and "if they know that we can do to them what they do to us, then you can sit down and talk it over." It is doubtful whether the CAB will in fact be given the power to limit foreign-airline capacity, an idea now generally rejected by the White House and its advisers. But the CAB can, if it chooses, use its powers over fares to play a very rough game with IATA. Hard-worked 748s Two Aerolineas Argentinas Avro ?48s have now flown over 300hr in a month. Appeal Date The appeals by BEA and British United against Air Ferry's new Verona licence will be heard by Sir Arthur Hutchin son at Whitehall Gardens Building, Westminster, starting on June 11 at 10 o'clock. Grounded Pending Investigation Pending an investigation, a BOAC 707 captain has been suspended from flying after two Boeing 707 engine pods struck the runway while landing at Accra on May 18. Aer Lingus Viscount Emergency Descent An Aer Lingus Viscount flying from Dublin to Amsterdam by way of Manchester made an emergency descent of 12,000ft when a cabin door became unfastened at 17,000ft. The aircraft landed safely at Schiphol and none of the crew or 26 passengers was hurt. Bardock Turned Down The Air Transport Licensing Board does not consider Bardock Aviation Services have shown a need for a Staverton-St Mary's service, and that the company is not—for this service—a " competent, fit and proper" applicant. The application has accordingly not been granted. New Boeing Order Pan American Airways have ordered five more 707-320C, bringing their jet freighter fleet to eight aircraft, and also takes Boeing civilian sales to 501 aeroplanes to 28 airlines. Pan American's 707-320Cs are equipped with "Airpaks," a palletized pre-loading system allowing carriage of the same packages by connecting rail and truck services. The new cargo-jets will be allocated to the United States Civil Air Reserve fleet. FAA to Discuss Blind Landing The Federal Aviation Agency are holding an international symposium at Atlantic City, NJ, from September 16 to 18 in order to share technical information on all- weather landing systems for aircraft. In addition to US Govern ment and scientific groups, invitations are being sent to all the international organizations associated with air transport, as well as aircraft and electronic manufacturers, airlines, military and general aviation interests. 748 Returns with New Orders Hawker Siddeley Aviation has won a £lm contract from Thailand for four Avro 748 Series 2s and spares to be delivered in 1964. Three of the aircraft will be operated by Thai Airways and the fourth will be for the personal use of the King of Thailand. This order brings the total confirmed order book for the 748 to 26 plus a substantial number of 748MFs for the RAF, and a number being built under licence in India. The 748 Series 2 prototype is now back at Woodford after a six-week tour of Africa and the Far East, during which it visited Thailand. Too Many Carriers? Speaking at the opening of Cunard Eagle's new London air terminal in Knightsbridge, Mr Neil Marten, Par liamentary Secretary to the MoA, said: "We have problems with foreign governments in obtaining their agreement to flights by inde pendent companies due partly, I think, to their reluctance to accept a multiplicity of British carriers. Our negotiations with foreign governments are not yet complete but when they are I hope it will be seen that our independent airlines have a very special contribu tion to make to the further development of Europe's air services."
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