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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1075.PDF
610 FLIGHT International. 16 April MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES... consolidate our West African route so that it can become profitable before we think of a step forward. Besides, the currency situation in South America is very unstable—in fact IATA is at present fixing rates on a weekly basis, so unless we can make sure that we can make money out of this route we are not interested in operating it. From the point of view of equipment, the Comet 4C can do the route. Are there any other areas which you would like to serve ? It all depends on the commercial prospects. Our future expansion will be in Africa, in particular the Arab communities—Libya, Tunis, Algiers, Morocco—and East Africa for tourism if there is the political stability. UAA are serving North Africa on a com- mercial and prestige basis. We are not interested in the prestige side of it. One route I would go on tomorrow would be Beirut - Rome/Tunis if I could get the traffic rights from the Italians. How about the North Atlantic ? Anybody who sticks his neck into the North Atlantic route areas needs to have a very tough neck indeed. We are not interested in prestige, only in profitability. What about the fares situation overall, and particularly in the Middle East? It has improved. We have been able to persuade some of the non-IATA carriers to join IATA, although I cannot say that all IATA carriers are not under-cutting. We are also resorting to practical ways of solving these problems, mainly by pooling so that it does not pay to under-cut. Where you have pools you have a clean fare situation. We have pools on Beirut - Kuwait, Beirut - Baghdad and Beirut - Cairo. The atmosphere of respectability is growing. I would just like to leave one thought with you. Everyone is talking about lower fares. I believe in lowering fares to attract passengers, but 1 think there is a limit below which it has no effect apart from calling in the taxpayer. I think there should be a yard- stick, but I do not think we can go on generalizing about cutting fares on the Atlantic 30 per cent and then extending this to other routes. All fares all over the world should be looked into to see which could stand reduction. The Rome - Beirut fare, for example, is high, with the result that airlines are now crowding the Rome - Beirut sector. If the fare level were the same as it is on, say, Vienna - Beirut this route would have a better service instead of all the airlines crowding the high-fare route. Do you believe that pooling jeopardizes incentive ? I agree that pooling is very much against incentive, but sometimes it is the only way to clean up a fare situation. We do not believe in pooling as a basis of carrying on our business. The passenger is not served as nicely and the public suffer as a result of pooling. You have been in association with both BO AC and Air France. From your experience which airline drives the harder commercial bargain ? From the bargaining point of view neither of them stands a chance with us! The Operational Picture While the commercial side of MEA is entirely under Lebanese management, the production side—operations and engineering— is international, with a strong British and Australian accent. The operations v.p. is an Australian, Capt G. McGilvray, and the senior engineering v.p., under the Lebanese chief engineer Mr George Carayan, is Mr W. Forsyth, who was seconded to MEA by BOAC. Senior executives on the operations side are Capt G. Chippendell, operations training manager (British); Capt R. Donovan, chief ground instructor and DC-3/DC-4 check pilot (Australian); Capt J. H. Dalrymple, chief check and training captain (Australian); Capt I. G. Mason, operations service manager (British). All these pilots fly the line regularly. Of 20 Comet captains seven are Australian, four British, three South African, three Lebanese, one American, one Irish and one Rhodesian. Of 19 Comet first officers, six are Australian, four British, six Lebanese, one Swedish, one South African and one American. Of the Comet flight engineers 12 are British, two Lebanese, one New Zealand and one Indian Of 23 Caravelle pilots 15 are Lebanese (seven captains and eighi first officers) and one is French. Four French Caravelle captains left MEA following disagreements with their British and Australian colleagues. There were protests from the French pilots' union tha1. their members were being discriminated against, and that the airline was British run. While this may encourage those in Britain wb< think that the airline is now French, the fact is that MEA speak as well of Sud's support of the Caravelle as they do of HS's suppo-: of the Comet. The airline's policy on nationality is to give Lebanese pilots equa: opportunity, though in the opinion of Capt McGilvray the foreign influence will remain at least for the next ten years. The airline has been sponsoring new Lebanese pilots and six are in training ai the moment, but there is no company requirement to recruii pilots of any particular nationality. MEA receive 20 times more applications for flying jobs than recruiting needs demand, according to Capt McGilvray, though in his opinion pilot recruiting is going to become serious in the next year or two. There is, he says, a strong spirit of enthusiasm among the flying staff which he ascribes to the influence of Sheikh Najib. and to the encouragement given to pilots to take an interest in the company. "I believe," says Capt McGilvray, "that an airline's rate of progress is proportional to the amount of argument and discussion that goes on inside it." There is an advantage in the smallness of MEA, which has little more than 100 pilots, because everybody knows everybody else This strengthens the safety side because, says Capt McGilvray, "we appreciate the strong points as well as the weak points of all our pilots." The age group 35 to 42, he says, gives the best combination of maturity, experience and judgment, and this will be the Concord age group. Present plans for introducing the Concord call for four to six weeks ground-training 12 months before delivery, and flying training preferably at Beirut because of the good weather ("] can't remember a diversion due to weather," says Capt McGilvray) MEA will probably share Air France's training facilities, he thinks, this being natural in view of their financial interest in MEA. He says the Concord is "better tailored to our route pattern than to any other in the world." Of the Comet he remarks: "It has been particularly fine. For a lot of the year it has too much power, but this is a wonderful fault." Not so good from the commercial point of view, it has been found, is its shortage of freight space. Passenger Relations MEA pilots are encouraged to take a direct interest in passenger relations. If one hears any criticism of MEA in the Middle East it is on the score of cancelled or delayed schedules caused b\ special flights, and the operations side does what it can to improve any deficiencies here. Capt McGilvray makes a useful commem on this fairly general airline problem—"The status of the people on the passenger relations side could be elevated. The trouble is often caused by failures in communication—you can never brief everyont to say the same thing and there is always somebody ad-libbing somewhere or someone who does not fully understand the pilot's or the engineer's problem." Comet utilization during 1963 was 7 hours 57 minutes daily per aircraft, with 7 hours 15 minutes recorded by the Caravelle, an excellent achievement so soon after introduction. Estimates ir> 1964 are 8 hours for the Comet and 7 hours 35 minutes for the Caravelle. Comet crew utilization averages 60 to 75 hours a month, depending on the season. Asked what contributes most to air safety Capt McGilvray says "We attempt to concentrate at the top levels of safety, not accepting the minimum levels." The conversion of MEA's pilots to jets ca!ls for 25 to 30 hours as a supernumerary crew, following classroern introduction on the ground; 12 hours on the simulator; and eigln hours actual type conversion. "It is a very strict company rule that we never put a man on the route until he has had 100 hours un- der supervision," during which there is a progress check at 50 hours to see whether he is going to make the grade. At this stage a rrwr> is not normally "chopped," but nevertheless a very careful look is taken at his progress to see whether completion of his trainm? is going to be worthwhile. At the end of this 100 hours the pilot i> given a complete route check and another local 2-hour frying check MEA Engineering is an impressive establishment—lavish equipped, with no evidence of penny-pinching. Until the men ^ with Air Liban its capacity was too great for MEA's own need-
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