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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1492.PDF
306 FLIGHT International, 29 August 1963 This F.27 Fokker Friendship, the third of five ordered by Malayan Airways, was delivered on August 8 and ferried to Singapore by a Malayan Airways crew. Delivery of the airline's fourth and fifth aircraft is scheduled for next month AIR COMMERCE.. the emphasis of the report is on the "abuse" of airlines by passengers [Para 62], rather than the abuse of passengers by the airlines. The Board explains that a passenger should not expect all his money back if he does not use his ticket, and that in making a reservation "he places the airline under an obligation to keep a place for him on that particular flight and not to sell all the places to other persons. He has therefore no right in law or commercial ethics to escape his obligations under his contract with the airline." Is a passenger being commercially unethical or unlawful if he wants his money back because, for his own good reasons, he decides not to travel? What has a traveller to do with commercial ethics? It might be thought that the Board, having explained the oblig ations of passengers, would feel that a ticket holder is entitled to redress if an airline fails in its obligations to keep a place for him. But the Board evidently does not feel this. Reminding the public that the Board has no power to prescribe such measures "even if we so wished," the report acknowledges that "inconvenience and sometimes distress" is caused by overbooking. But the Board is satisfied that the airlines "are not complacent" about the consequences of overbooking. It is perhaps too easily satisfied. Publication of Statistics Encouragingly, the report sees "little force" in the arguments commonly put forward by operators against the publication of traffic statistics. But the Board then says: "We do not consider it part of our function to publish statistics about British air transport unless we had access to statistics that were not otherwise available to the industry." Only a few sentences previously the report says "we have accumulated over the last two years a considerable wealth of statistical information about British air services." The Board does have access to "statistics not otherwise available to the industry." So why does it conclude that if further information is to be made available it should be under the Ministry of Aviation's auspices? Apart from the fact that this is conceding power to the Ministry—for statistics are the stuff of the Board's power—where is the logic in this progression of thought ? On the very day that the report was published Board members were grappling at a hearing with mountains of inconsistent statis tical evidence produced by various parties. They heard one indepen dent airline witness say: "There is so much argument that goes on at these hearings over figures that we thought [production of figures being sought by the Board] would be a waste of time." Countless dreary hours are wasted by the Board—and by airline witnesses who would be more gainfully employed getting passengers into the seats of British aircraft—in soporofic argument over statistics. Why does the Board not require statistics to be published, in detail, on a regular basis, route by route, so that half-truths become more difficult to purvey, so that argument over interpre tation can be cut by 95 per cent, and so that—outside the Board's courtroom—everyone will know how the industry is getting on? The only objection would be that the commercial interests of operators would suffer; but the Board "sees no force" in this. So why not publish, and be damned to a system which wastes so much of everyone's time ? There is the point, too, that mandatory publication of facts and figures is in itself something of a guarantee that the facts and figures will be accurate; and only on accurate facts and figures can the Board make sound judgments. Domestic Tariffs The Board reiterates its view that in the matter of domestic fares the airlines know best [Paras 30, 31, of the report]. It does not seem right to the Board "to intervene unduly in a function of management of which the financial result would be left for the airline to bear." This is a discouraging section; and it is not relieved by an elaborate review [Paras 35-39] of the idea of fare competition which, the report says, "is sometimes suggested." We do not know by whom this has ever been suggested; indeed, as the Board says, "we rarely detect any disposition [among oper ators] to engage in fare competition." How much more to the point the report would have been if it had considered the very real problem, which is not mentioned, of jet v. propeller competition on domestic routes. It is quality competition more than price competition which threatens to ruin the economics of domestic services. But this is the report of a tribunal which has gained the respect and confidence of the industry in its three years of steadily maturing expertise and discretion; and any operator that thinks it can get away with inadequate financial resources would be well advised to read paras 89-94. NEW PLAN FOR LOCALS THE Civil Aeronautics Board has announced a new plan by which it hopes to cut the subsidy paid to US local service airlines from the f 81m paid in 1962 to $56m annually after five years. Savings would be achieved in three ways: by limiting the number of flights eligible for subsidy; by consolidating services to neighbouring cities into one airport (the CAB estimates 44 airports could be combined); and by continuing the use-it-or-lose-it policy by which carriers may discontinue services which fail to average five passengers daily. An increase in the average stage length and a reduction in station costs will be the main effect on the local service operations by this relaxation in service standards. To avoid a great fall-off in revenue the plan will require careful implementation. After finding it almost impossible to win against the private car travel on other than feeder services on stages of less than 75 miles, the CAB seems left with no alternative but to recommend this contraction of the network.
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