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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0983.PDF
952 FLIGHT International, 20 June 1963 AIR CO E R C E A BOARD DECISION OVERTURNED WHEN the Minister of Aviation overturns a decision of the Air Transport Licensing Board it must obviously be only for the most compelling of reasons. The Board is the authority, not the Minister, and clearly this authority must not be undermined. It is therefore important to examine the reason why the Minister has upheld the recommendation of his appeal commissioner, Sir Arthur Hutchinson, to revoke Silver City's Blackpool - London licence and to hand it over to Autair. The key words in Sir Arthur's recommendation are: "though the material before me is not sufficient to enable me to make a precise assessment of all the factors, I find that on balance the advantages of the proposed service via Luton [i.e., the Autair service] are sufficient to outweigh the admitted advantage enjoyed by the respondent [Silver City] in respect of resources and experience." Sir Arthur, noting that the Board gave the licence to Silver City because of their greater resources (there being in the Board's opinion "little to choose "between the two claims) says that this would have been right only if the Board had found that Autair did not satisfy the require ments of the Act as regards competence and ability. Thus Sir Arthur appears to have reweighed the commercial advantages of the Autair service via Luton, and found in favour of Autair. He has done this despite the fact, to use his own words, that the material before him is insufficient to make a precise assessment of all the factors. This does not seem to be a strong enough basis on which to overturn a decision of the ATLB. Nevertheless, small operators will find comfort in the incidental consequence of this appeal decision, which is that the Minister does not appear to agree that the bigger operator is necessarily the better operator. It will, furthermore, give Autair—a small but lively and enterprising independent—its first big chance to make a good job of scheduled services. The story is as follows. In March 1962 Autair applied to operate a London (Luton)- Blackpool service. In August and October respectively Silver City (British United) and Starways also lodged applications for services, respectively from London Gatwick to Blackpool and London Heathrow to Blackpool. The route had previously been operated by Pegasus for a short period, their London terminal being Gatwick, until that company ceased operations. Clearly, the demand for air services between Blackpool and London was sufficient to attract the interest of three operators. In October 1962 the Air Transport Licensing Board heard Autair's application and in November it heard the Silver City and Starways applications. Autair objected to the Silver City and Starways applications, as did BEA; neither Starways nor Silver City objected to the Autair application. The Board decided to grant the licence to Silver City, on the grounds that, in so many words, this company had greater resources. The background to the decision was the subject of a note in Flight International for December 27, page 1007, in which it was suggested that Autair "may well take strong exception" to the implication that they were less likely than Silver City to make a good job of the service. Autair appealed to the Minister against the Board's decision and a hearing was held before Sir Arthur Hutchinson on January 1. Sir Arthur's recommendations were lodged with the Minister on April 12 and now, just on two months later, the Minister has published his decision to uphold the recommendation, namely, that Autair should be given the licence and that the Silver City licence should be revoked at the end of the season. This is not the first time that the Minister has overturned a decision of the Air Transport Licensing Board; but it is the first time that an operator who has already started a new service has been required to suspend that service and in effect to hand it over to another company. In his decision the Minister of Aviation says; "The Minister has given particular consideration to the question of timing, having regard to the fact that Silver City Airways have already started to operate on this route. He has come to the conclusion that the best course with a view to avoiding unnecessary inconvenience to the travelling public, the appellant and the respondent [respectively Complete except for final painting, the first E>AC One-Eleven has been moved into the ground-resonance test rig. Comprehensive-systems functioning will follow, culminating in ground engine runs, further systems checks under power, flight finals inspection, and first flight next month
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