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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1902.PDF
URSDAY OCTOBER 31, 1963 Number 2851 Volume 84 Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 Editor-in-Chief MAURICEA. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. CU NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMS D E N Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE In this World News TSR 2 Air Commerce BEA Engineering; Straight and Level Suffolk Lightnings Letters Missiles and Spaceflight Sport and Business Industry International service Aviation issue 708 710 712 718 722 723 726 729 737 740 740a iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137). Telegrams Flightpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5 5s. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, New Street, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3 ; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3505. Glasgow, 62 Bucha nan Street, Glasgow CI; telephone Central 1265-6. New York, NY : Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadwav 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Hlffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1963. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. It Starts on Sunday NOBODY who has tasted American domestic air transport can fail to appreciate its strong competitive flavour. According to US theory people don't buy air transport: they are sold it. America is the citadel of competition; the law is designed to promote and encourage it and is unforgiving of its abuse. The British approach to competition has been more cautious. Creation of two State corporations did not foster conditions for national rivalry; and even a decade of government by a party which espouses competitive private enterprise has not yet allowed the BOAC and BEA hegemony to be seriously challenged by the private airlines. But on November 3 one of these corporations, BEA, will meet American-domestic-style competition for the first time. On that day British Eagle inaugurate UK domestic trunk-route services. Both corporations are used to competition, from foreign airlines and from independents, but not truly in the US domestic sense. Their striving against foreign airlines is confined by IATA agreements on cabin service, or is smoothed by pooling agreements. True, competition from the independents has been experienced in the charter field, particularly in inclusive tours, but only on a restricted scale in the scheduled field. No Fear, No Favour The competition to be inaugurated next Sunday is not feared by BEA, even though they may have done everything in their power to prevent it (how galling it must have been to have to speak for a record that speaks for itself). Now, having lost their battle, BEA have promised total war on British Eagle, and there is evidence already in BEA's timetables of the "sandwiching" of Eagle's limited flights. British Eagle do not fear competition either, and they know what it is. We recall our report in November 1961 on their operations in the western hemisphere, and the "invigorating American idiom in which this British airline handles its selling and marketing." Essentially the same team, under Eagle's founder-chairman Mr Harold Bamberg, will now apply this experience to Britain's main domestic routes. Vigorous selling and fresh ideas on customer-service are likely to be the chosen instruments—for example, meals, seat-selection, trickle-loading, perhaps the use of catchy promotional names like "Sunset" flights or "Owl" flights, and flight numbers corresponding with departure time, an idea which went down well in the Nassau-Miami market. Already the mere prospect of competition has spurred BEA to even greater efforts. It is a severe disappointment to British Eagle (though it cannot have been too great a surprise) that the Air Transport Licensing Board refused their request for higher frequency. Their existing licensed capacity—one flight a day—represents the minimum measure of com petition. But, if it works, as it doubtless will, British Eagle will have earned for themselves the right to a steadily increasing share of the market in the years ahead. We do not forget that for four years on New York - Bermuda Eagle increased their share of the traffic in a straight fight with three of the world's most powerful carriers—Pan American, Eastern and BOAC.
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