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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1656.PDF
246 FLIGHT International, 17 August (967 The second Fokker F.28 Fellowship during its first flight on August 3. The prototype has now flown more than \2Ohr. See cko last week's issue, pages 202 and 205 AIR TRANSPORT The Independent Challenge WHEN, LAST WEEK, the two biggest independent airlines,British United and British Eagle (and, later, CaledonianAirways) announced their applications for North Atlantic services and other plans for the future, these did not come entirely as a surprise. BUA and Eagle had been expected to make important applications to the Air Transport Licensing Board by way of staking claims in anticipation of the indepen- dent inquiry into British air transport which is being made at the Government's request (see Flight for August 3, pages 165 and 169-170). But some of the details of the series of proposals by the two major carriers were certainly unexpected. Whereas Eagle's primary plan is a straightforward London - New York service starting in 1969, British United's proposals include a London - Canada service in 1968, a London - Belfast - New York service in 1969, and extensions of the airline's South American service to Tahiti and New Zealand in 1970. Both airline groups had been working on prospective expan- sion plans for many months, but the fact that both put in their applications to the ATLB on the morning of August 9 can hardly have been a coincidence. Some guidance to the chain of events behind this strange situation is that BUA's invitations to a press conference on "future plans" were dated August 2, whereas Eagle's invitations were telephoned on August 9. Since the primary feature of the series of applica- tions to the board were long-haul services in direct or indirect competition with BOAC, it was natural enough that neither airline would wish to appear tardy in making an application. The British United plans are the more comprehensive of the two and the airline was the first (by two hours) to make an announcement, so these will be outlined first The North Atlantic proposals are based on the strong conviction that there should be a second British carrier on the UK - Canada route and on the belief, so far as the London - Belfast • New York/Boston service is concerned, that there is adequate traffic potential in Northern Ireland, whence, it is estimated, about 20,000 passengers a year travel to and from North America via other terminal points. BUA says that Britain is not main- taining its share of North Atlantic traffic and, no doubt, con- siders that the introduction of Belfast as a traffic point on the service will, coupled with the use of Gatwick as the London terminal, increase the chances of approval. The extensions to the South American services can be considered as logical developments of the airline's network. The overall plan is being developed by BUA in four stages from 1968 to 1971: — 1968 A route from London to Montreal and Toronto, and an extension of the present South American network to include Lima—served either from Santiago or direct from Rio- Scheduled-service traffic between the UK and Canada, says BUA, now exceeds 350,000 passengers per annum and is increasing at a substantial rate. The market is at present served by only two carriers, BOAC and Air Canada. Peru is at present served by a British carrier only via New York. 1969 A route from London to New York and Boston, via Belfast, and the addition of Belfast to the UK - Canada route. Two US airlines, Pan American and TWA, operate scheduled passenger services between New York and London, but there is only one British carrier, BOAC, with a minority share of the traffic. There are no direct services between Ulster and North America; passengers must travel via points such as Dublin, Shannon, Manchester, Prestwick and London. 1970 A further extension of the South American routes from either Santiago or Lima to Auckland, via Easter Island and Tahiti. An extension of the Canadian route to Vancouver. The extension to New Zealand provides, BUA considers, the prospect of a mainly over-water route from London suitable for supersonic operations. The extension into western Canada would be a natural development of the North Atlantic route. 1971 A more direct route between London and Lima, via the Caribbean, and a further extension of the Pacific route to
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