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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0802.PDF
461 FLIGHT Inter- Mtional, I m «-* mm "Flight International" photograph Symbolizing the confrontation which led to the formation of BOAC-Cunard in June 1962, a BO AC Boeing 707 and Cunard Eagle Boeing 707 at Nassau, Bahamas. A few weeks after this picture was taken BOAC, harassed by Eagle's competition, and Cunard Steam-Ship, concerned at the money they were having to spend on this competition, came together to form BOAC-Cunard. From the operational point of view this company is 100 per cent BOAC Airline Profile / NUMBER FIFTEEN IN THE SERIES BOAC-CUNARD An interview with Mr Ross Stainton, managing director, BOAC-Cunard BY THE AIR TRANSPORT EDITOR we going to see the name BOAC-Cunard painted on the side of your aircraft, and when are we going to be exhorted to fly BOAC-Cunard? This depends on President Johnson. We hope to have his decision now very shortly. Is BOAC-Cunard anything more than a paper company and a book- keeping transaction between BOAC and Cunard? Very much so. First it is a marketing organization. We market each other's services, and we sell a new product—combined air/sea —never really properly marketed before. Secondly it is a cost- cutting organization. In several instances already we have been able to cut costs, and there is tremendous scope here. For instance BOAC has closed its downtown office in New York at 70 Broadway, and moved into the Cunard building at 25 Broadway. Mr Ross Stainton, manager of BOAC's western routes, was appointed managing director of BOAC- Cunard earlier this year We have seen the Minister's embarrassment in the Commons over the question of publication of the BOAC-Cunard agreement. He has changed his mind and asked you to show the agreement to Parliament, and you have refused. How can you square showing the agreement to 'he CAB and to your American competitors but not to Parliament and the British public ? We are not trying to square the two. Our confidential filing of tiie agreement with the CAB was necessary in order to complete >ur application for an amendment to our US operating permit. Two blacks don't make a white. I don't believe that disclosure of the agreement in confidence to Pan American and TWA is of any Particular consequence competitively. Did the Minister, then Mr Thorneycroft, see the agreement beforeapproving it in June 1962 ? Yes, Mr Thorneycroft saw a copy of the final draft of the BOAC- Cunard agreement before it was signed. Has the Air Transport Licensing Board seen the agreement ? Yes, the ATLB were given the required number of copies of the agreement which we filed before our applications were lodged with them, and conferences were held with the ATLB to answer any questions they had before we went into the details of the route applications. BOAC have lost at least £25 million in developing western routes. Does Cunard make a retrospective contribution to these losses ? Cunard entered the agreement looking forwards and not back- wards and they are not responsible for any of our past losses nor we for theirs, either on the sea or in the air. I don't know how you arrived at your figure of £25 million, which depends on how you allocate and apportion costs. Before BOAC-Cunard was formed there were three British mid- Atlantic services—one terminating in Jamaica and two in Miami. Now there is only one mid-Atlantic service terminating in Miami. Is Miami being developed as a new British gateway in the USA as forcefully now as it was by Eagle ? In Miami we promote travel to London, but only by connection over Nassau. It is true that we cut Eagle's two Miami services down to one for last summer because load factors had been dis- couraging. But during the summer, partly because of the changes in cabotage fares to the intermediate points, results were much better than we had expected. In consequence we restored the second frequency in mid-December and we shall be running a mid-atlantic Jamaica terminator this summer. This BOAC-Cunard agreement, when it was launched, was described as a "full alliance of two great British enterprises and two names embodying outstanding prestige and reputation, constituting the most formidable British attack there has ever been on the Atlantic travel market." BOAC's North Atlantic traffic growth in the 12 months ending last August, which are the latest published figures available, was less than 6 per cent. This is very considerably short of your competitors'1 growth and moreover it compares with the growth of no less than 21 per cent during the 12 months ended the previous August,
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