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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0046.PDF
48 FLIGHT International, II January 1968 AIR TRANSPORT... Mr Glover said: "To my mind this latent problem can only be answered by a 180-degree turn on previous I ATA policy, which has hitherto set its face against any attempt to control output. Despite this past policy, and the reasons for it, I invite this meeting at least to consider whether the time has now come when some measure of capacity control is going to be needed if we are to behave in a responsible fashion to the bankers to whom we are going to have to look." He had little doubt but that a greater degree of self-regulation would be needed in the next ten years. The problem of capital availability was not one that could be solved by IATA, other than by conducting its affairs in a fashion sufficiently responsible to attract further capital. The answer seemed to lie firstly in an improved understanding by the United States Government that the export of civil aircraft would need to be assisted; and secondly with the American money market, which would have to organise itself to meet the forthcoming enormous demand for loans. Cargo Traffic Aspects The new competition from surface carriers, said Mr Graham, was one of the most important factors affecting the future of air cargo. "It is apparent that we have benefited in the past few years from the fact that the surface carriers were in a dormant technological situation, combined with constantly increasing costs." But there was now a different situation, with increased activity by hard- driving managements on the surface, who were adopting new systems and techniques. The advent of container ships meant that prices for con- tainerised cargo were 30-50 per cent below those for non- containerised cargo on short sea routes, and 5-10 per cent below on longer-haul routes. Speed differentials between surface and air were being sharply decreased. According to the McKinsey report, five container ships could carry all the dry cargo that moves between the USA and Britain; the surface carriers" construction programmes would provide, by 1970, two or three times the capacity in container ships that would be required on the North Atlantic. This raised the definite possibility of a rate war among the surface carriers. Many new methods of cargo handling were being evolved by the shipping companies, and advances were being made in develop- ing container-consolidation and break-bulk points close to manufacturing areas. While the airlines' speed-gap for en-route carriage was still substantial, their door-to-door differential was being reduced. Many forecasts of future cargo increases would have to be modified unless some hard work was put into developing new systems and methods which would integrate into the total transportation requirements of customers. Further analyses would have to be made of all the intermediate steps in the door-to-door process. Another problem in the future of air cargo was the need to simplify rating. "The proliferation of thousands of specific commodity rates is not the way to make it easy for people to do business. Future cargo rates must be established under a broad, basic general cargo rate structure in all areas, with proper weight breaks, and specific commodity rates only applicable to very narrow descriptions on very high-volume items. Within specific commodity rates, we have found sub- stantial abuses by the users of these rates in mis-declaration and misuse of specific-commodity descriptions. This results in a revenue dilution which is uncontrollable." It was important to establish a reasonable weight-break: "the person who bases his thinking on 45kg rates in this era of cargo is 20 years behind the times." Carriers had to cam cargo, and get away from small-package shipments. There was a need, said Mr Graham, for greater management analysis of cargo costs. Too many carriers provided below-cost services at airports and to agents and shippers. Too little was known of the true cost of carrying cargo on passenger services. and it was not valid to base a rate structure on the operating costs of all-cargo aircraft where these aircraft formed les> than ten per cent of the carrier's cargo capacity. The relatively few all-cargo aircraft in service meant that unit costs were high. There was, said Mr. Graham, a personnel problem attached to the air-cargo business. Too many bright young men had been taken out of cargo and put into passenger sales, but air cargo was going to need the best men—business or economics graduates—to sell at top level. An equal concen- tration of management talent was vital at IATA cargo con- ferences, and adequate research before the conferences was also important. Technical Aspects Mr Boltensweiler concentrated his talk on three topics: SST noise, cost savings, and airport-handling procedures. With regard to the first, he was deeply worried about the side-line noise of the SST during take-off—far more than about its sonic boom. "The noise emitted underneath the take-off path will be quite acceptable by today's standards, but populated areas abreast of the runway will be flooded with noise that exceeds today's noise levels by a very, ven wide margin." If the manufacturers could do nothing about this, drastic steps would have to be taken, such as zoning limits and/or evacuation of neighbouring villages, construction of SST airports at remote sites, and the banning of SST take-offs at night. The first would be difficult for financial, legal or political reasons; the others would affect operating costs quite seriously. Therefore a technical breakthrough on noise suppression was a "must." There were still a number of opportunities to reduce operating costs, said Mr Baltensweiler; for example, inter- company pooling to improve equipment utilisation, and the division of labour between airlines to improve the utilisation of manpower and installations. It might be possible to establish joint cargo-handling or catering facilities serving several air- lines and—a controversial point—the joint use of aircraft and spares following the standardisation of specifications. In 10-15 years' time, said Mr Baltensweiler, air travel would be commonplace; much effort would therefore have to be spent on developing an integrated door-to-door transport system. Passengers would have to be able to insert their combination passport-credit cards into slots at the boarding gate and select their destinations at the same time. The com- puter would then open the boarding gate, direct the baggage. and send in the bill at the end of the month. The difficulties were apparent in setting up such a system, but only a powerful combined effort by the airlines, co-ordinated with the govern- ments concerned, would achieve any improvement in facilitation and ground handling. BUA(Cl) GO IT ALONE SINCE January 1 British United Airways (CI) have been operating independently of British United in a bid to put the airline's Channel Islands services on a profitable basis. In a letter to his staff, Captain G. Thomas, the airline's general manager, wrote: "In recent years the group policy was that BUA and BUA(CI) should work on an integrated basis, but we recommended to the board that we be left to work on our own." The airline, which employs 500 people in Jersey alone, has been told by the directors of the Air Holdings Group that it must demonstrate the success of the new policy by April 1 and show a stated profit by September 30. Captain Thomas has explained that the Jersey airline plans to "design a new pro- duct" specifically for travellers to and from the Channel Islands. This will include new flight schedules better suited to local needs and possibly increased services. He added: "For the past two or three years we have relied on BUA for a lot of services, like collecting revenue, and it has not worked out in every case. Here in the Channel Islands we are doing a completely different kind of work to that done by the long- distance airlines. We want to make air travel more off the peg and we do not want to go on asking for fare increases." In effect, the new policy is a "re-separation" of the Jersev company. The originally independent Airlines (Jersey), formed in 1948, were taken over by the Air Holdings Group in 1962 The company has a fleet of 12 aircraft—eight HP. Heralds and four Viscounts. In addition, the airline hires a BAC One Eleven from BUA for the Gatwick-Jersey service and a Heron from Morton Air Services for the Alderney run.
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