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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1606.PDF
418 FLIGHT International, 5 Septembe AIR COM MERCE... CUNARD EAGLE'S DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS (Continued from page 274 of the August 22 issue) THIS report concludes our record of the six-day hearing by the Air Transport Licensing Board of Cunard Eagle Airways' latest United Kingdom domestic service applications. The first two parts of the report appeared in the August 15 and 22 issues and dealt with: (1) The examination of the general case; (2) the particular evidence in connection with London - Edinburgh, and the start of the hearing into the rival applications of Cambrian, CEA and Starways for the London - Liverpool route. The subsequent proceedings in connection with this latter route undoub tedly contained the most remarkable feature of the whole hearings, namely the decision of a public authority, Liverpool Corporation, to denigrate in public the services and standards of Starways. Starways' application for an increase from 25 to 35 in the max imum number of scheduled services permitted on the London - Liverpool route was considered first by the Board. Mr J. A. Wilson, a director of Starways, presented the airline's case. The first part of the cross-examination, by Mr G. Holmes for Liverpool Corporation, was recorded on page 272 of the August 22 issue. Mr Wilson was then questioned by the representative for Cambrian, who first of all asked whether Mr Wilson would agree that the Liverpool Corporation has "not been overly pleased with Starways." He was answered in the affirmative. Asked whether he would prefer competition from Cunard Eagle 124-seat Britannias or Cambrian's Viscounts on the route, Mr Wilson, after at first saying "neither," said that of course the Viscount would be "the lesser of two evils." Would the larger aircraft, with a certain appeal, drain off more of Starways' traffic? Mr Wilson agreed. Had Starways' Air Operators Certificate recently been the subject of inspection by the Ministry of Aviation? "Yes," replied Mr Wilson. Had there been any effect on this certificate? Mr Wilson: "No." A Board member, Mr Taylor, referring to the fact that there was no mention in Starways' timetable of aircraft type, asked Mr Wilson whether he thought that publicity of a better type of aircraft would improve traffic Mr Wilson said that this information was given on request; and he told another Board member, Mr James, that some—but not a lot of—people preferred to wait for a Viscount rather than fly in a DC-3. Reference was made by Starways to Flight International for July 18, in which it was stated that the DC-3 was still the most numerous type in world-wide service Examined by his counsel, Mr Wilson stated, in answer to the point about Starways being at variance with the Liverpool Corpor ation, that Liverpool had lost probably as much as £12,000 a year in landing fees, owing to the inclusion of stops at Hawarden on the Liverpool - London service. Starways And Liverpool If either Cambrian or Cunard Eagle came on to the route, stated Mr Wilson, Starways would most probably be obliged to cut out Hawarden to meet direct competition. If faced with losses on this route "we might have to abandon it altogether." Evidence on behalf of Starways was given by the travel manager of the Pilkington Glass Co, who thought that Starways' fares were "very attractive"; and by Mr Hugh Jones, Flintshire county clerk, who said he spoke for the whole of North Wales in asserting that Starways' withdrawal from Hawarden would be a very severe blow to industry in that area, Liverpool City Corporation fielded a strong team of experts in an effort to convince the Board that the air transport needs of Merseyside have risen above the presently licensed capacity, and will continue to rise at a significant rate. Mr Holmes said that the City needed more and better air services; he thought it was com pelling evidence that for every 5.8 passengers who left Liverpool by rail only one went by air; the ratio for Manchester was 1.4 to 1. Mr Holmes then said that although the need for more services was not a sufficient reason for the introduction of a second operator, the Corporation was not wholly satisfied with the standard and quality of Starways' service, and he felt that the only way to improve the situation would be for "Starways' monopoly to be broken." One example of the poor service, he said, was the way in aircraft from Starways' mixed fleet of DC-3s and DC-4i often used instead of Viscounts on the important route to L< giving rise to gross delays, poor service, and a concern to who were not happy flying in older aircraft like these, pressed by Mr Harvey of the Board to be quite specific abou Liverpool Corporation were supporting in the hearing, Mr £ said: "Principally more services, provided by Starways if nea but we would like another operator on the route, and sir have supported CEA in the past we will continue to suppori now. We have a lot of faith in the name Cunard." The first expert called by Mr Holmes was Dr Smith, pre of economics at Liverpool University, who gave a lively desci of the industrial boom on Merseyside. He said that a uni survey of some 200 firms recently established in the area si conclusively that transport services to London and ind areas in the UK and Europe, particularly by air, were inade The second part of Dr Smith's lecture to the Board was < value of competition, which, he said, economists were now c to regard as the only effective way to keep up management stan He said: "Economists used to think businessmen, by deft would ensure this, but they've learnt better." Obsessed With Manchester? Mr Jones, for Starways, asked Dr Smith a number of que to try to establish more specifically what were the deficiences transport with which some of the 200 companies in particula troubled. However, Dr Smith felt that he was not qualif discuss transport problems in such detail. Mr Jones wor whether the evidence might be rather too theoretical; Stai he said, had a lot of experience of selling transport to the com] in the Merseyside area and he did not think the demand \ big as Dr Smith had described. Although, as a Liverpool n grieved him to say so, Mr Jones thought the Corporation w; obsessed with the idea of equality with Manchester, wher should think in terms of Leeds or Newcastle. Manchester, h< was at the hub of a bigger industrial area. On the quality of se Mr Jones said that Starways' London - Liverpool fare was than London to Manchester, and this was what the relative e mics of the two areas needed. Mr Holmes next called Mr H. W. G. Andrews, direct Liverpool Airport, to present evidence in support of the that the Starways service was of poor quality, unreliable insufficient. Mr Andrews said that the flying times from Live to London varied between 60min and 90min whereas ov almost identical distance, from Manchester, the times were 40-4 Mr Andrews also produced an analysis of load factors on flight from Liverpool to London and return during Marcl July this year. It showed overall load factors over 90 pa on a high percentage of occasions on morning and evening and overall load factors generally over 75 per cent. »# flights left with less than 55 per cent load factors. On the operational side, Mr Andrews said that during a period 13 out of 20 emergencies at Liverpool Airport w connection with Starways' aircraft, whereas only one-third traffic was Starways. s On the final day of the hearing (August 15) the Boaro able to hear all the outstanding route cases apart i« Edinburgh/Glasgow to Liverpool/Manchester/Birmmghanv try, which CEA withdrew to avoid the risk of a six-weeks m ment and consequent delay in starting the other se approved. . ^ An accelerated procedure was adopted for the ^a™ ( CEA London - Liverpool applications and the associatea tions. Cambrian asked for removal of the "closed door in their London - Liverpool - Isle of Man route, to &^ traffic rights over the southern sector. Mr B. J. T. C*11'2?'^, managing director, presented a detailed operational an plan to use a further Viscount twice daily, including weeKe
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