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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0011.PDF
6 FLIGHT International, 2 January 1964 f,veB/K , .... -. :..r li neat Hum. Nearest the camera is the first export One-Eleven, one of 12 ordered by Braniff International Airways, beyond it are four aircraft for British United Airways, including—at the head of the Iine—G-AS]A, the first production One-Eleven, which has storted its flight trials. In the left foreground another fuselage is ready for wing mating , AIR COM MERCE . . . April 1, 1963) an operating profit of £3.1m has been made— compared with a £3.1m loss at the same time last year. If BOAC can "hang on to that £3m operating profit during the winter months." says Sir Basil, "by the end of March we can meet the full year's interest payment on active capital." So far this year £51m out of a total of £71.5m revenue has been earned in overseas currency. Sir Basil Smallpeice records that BOAC engineering costs are now not much more than 4d per ctm compared with 10id six years ago. On London - New York the corporation is, he says, breaking even at less than a 40 per cent passenger load factor (at present fares). System break-even load factor he says—"even with Britan- nias and Comets still providing a third of our capacity"—is now down to 49 per cent. He does not, however, want to leave the staff with the idea that "all is now plain sailing." No one can afford to slacken, says Sir Basil, who wishes the corporation the "best of good fortune in 1964 and the years beyond," , BOAC'* NEW GENERAL MANAGER AS reported last week Mr David Craig, BEA's reservations manager, has been appointed by Sir Giles Guthrie, BOAC's new chairman, as senior general manager with effect from yesterday, January 1. In a recent letter to BOAC's management. Sir Giles said: "To avoid prolonging unnecessarily any uncertainty there may be about my intentions towards the present structure and composition of the corporation's executive management, I am hoping by arrangement with Sir Matthew Slattery to speak to you all on Thursday afternoon, December 19. First, I want you to know that, when I become chairman on January 1,1 intend to invite all members of executive management to continue in their existing appointments while 1 get to know them and gain experience of working with them. "On the other hand, I am planning that one new appointment should be made as soon as I join the corporation. 1 am proposing that Mr David Craig should rejoin BOAC as an additional member of executive management in a new post of senior general manager. In that position, he will work closely with me in the next few months in a study of the corporation and its problems leading to the preparation of the plan 1 have undertaken to submit to the Minister within a year. As a result of the various investigations and enquiries, executive management has been so close to its prob- lems for many months that I feel a new mind will be useful in ensuring a completely objective approach. "Consequently Mr Craig will contribute a fresh view to the valuable experience that is already employed in the management of the corporation's commercial affairs. Some of you will already know Mr Craig, who has been in civil aviation for 21 years and served for four years with BOAC before joining BEA. As BEA's nominee he was a member of the Board of Alitalia for 15 years and one of its four-man executive committee from the very beginning of that airline in 1946. At this time I do not expect to bring anyone else with me from BEA." Mr David Craig is 49 and his most recent responsibility with BEA has been the £5m reservations computer being installed at the West London terminal. Born in Rome of a Scottish father and a Venetian mother, Mr Craig was educated in various parts of the world including Jamaica, Italy and Austria. By the time he was ten he could speak four languages—English, French, German and Italian. Today he speaks seven. Always interested in aviation, he studied aeronautics at Zurich University, Switzerland, from which he graduated. He then became a post-graduate research student in aerodynamics at Jesus College Cambridge, and a member of that University's Air Squadron. He learned to fly at Zurich and gained his Private Pilot's Licence in 1937. In the early part of the war he was employed by the Air Ministry on jet-propulsion research at the Royal Aircraft Establish- ment, Farnborough, and later became scientific assistant to the Director of Scientific Research at the Air Ministry. To gain more practical engineering experience and become more closely connected with aircraft production, Mr Craig joined General Aircraft Ltd as assistant to the works manager. Then he moved to the Technical Development Department of BOAC and soon became superintendent of No 1 line, then operating Dakotas to the Middle East and West Africa. He was later appointed superintendent of No 3 line which ran the "ballbearing" service of Dakotas and Mosquitoes to Stockholm. He gained his first-class Civil Air Navigator's ticket and once radio-navigated a Mosquito to Sweden from the bomb bay. At the end of the war, when No 3 line closed, Mr Craig returned to No 1 line which was concerned mainly with flying European services and was ultimately taken over by BEA. Mr David Craig, who took up his post yesterday, January I, as senior general manager of BOAC, and about whom a note appears on this page. His responsibilities are thought likely to include many of those previously carried by the managing director
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