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Aviation History
1968
1968-1 - 0018.PDF
FLIGHT International, 5 December 1968 925 airline, British Eagle, especially for mid-week Britannia utilisa tion; failure to come reasonably close to these would have imposed a severe strain on the travel companies' arrangements. In the event BEA, although it made a determined bid for the business, was unable to agree to rates low enough to satisfy Travel Trust. The absorption in 1969 of the additional cost of signing with the corporation would have had to have been countered with abnormal increases in tour prices from 1970 on. While it seems unlikely that Dan-Air came down quite to the level of the rates agreed with British Eagle, Mr L. W. N. Warwick, Travel Trust's deputy managing director, last week said: "We've come out of it very well indeed." Mr Warwick added that tour bookings appeared very little affected by the British Eagle close-down; about 30,000 bookings for next season—about 20 per cent of capacity—had already been received, and 40,000 were expected by the end of the year. Dan-Air has yet to assess fully the effect of the new con tract on its operations and equipment requirements, but it is clear that it represents a very large parcel of business indeed for the airline. The flying involved will be in the region of 6,000hr a year—approximately equal to the extent of the Dan-Air IT operations in the current year. SUPPLEMENTAL ORDERS DC-IOs THE financial strength of the bigger US supplemental carriers, made possible by the enlightened policies of the CAB, has been demonstrated by the intended order (recorded in last week's issue, page 888) from Trans International Airlines for three McDonnell Douglas DC-IOs. At the same time, TIA ordered three more DC-8-63s to make seven in all. The DC-IOs, the first of which is due for delivery in June 1973, are to be the 330-passenger long-range version. TIA is a subsidiary of the Transamerica Corporation, the financial and insurance group, and is one of the only two supplemental carriers chartered for worldwide operations. •:• The letter of intent to buy the DC-IOs—the first from a supplemental—was signed by TIA's president, Mr Glenn Cramer, when he was taking delivery of the first of four DC-8-63Fs previously ordered. The price of the three DC-IOs is given as about $48 million (£20 million). Whether they will be powered by GE CF6 or P&W JT9D engines has not yet been decided. THE SAN FRANCISCO INCIDENT THE Japan Air Lines DC-8-62 JA-8032 which, as reported in last week's issue (page 890), crashed into shallow water in San Francisco bay on November 22 while on an approach to the airport, suffered extraordinarily little structural damage. It was raised by crane and taken on a barge to the old sea plane base beside the airport. The principal structural damage was to the flaps and one of the starboard powerplants—but the sea water, in spite of clever and fairly rapid salvage and fresh-water washdown, may have done further damage which has yet to be assessed. *; The DC-8 was inbound from Tokyo and was making a coupled autopilot approach in poor visibility when it hit the water at 09.26hr, Pacific Standard Time, three miles south of the main runway of San Francisco International. None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew members were more than super ficially injured. To offset the loss, JAL has extended the present lease of an Airlift International DC-8F so that operations will not be affected. HIGHER EUROPEAN FARES? AN increase of ten per cent in one-way fares on many Euro pean routes next spring is now a strong possibility, although the necessary unanimous decision by IATA airlines has not yet been made. The increase found favour at the Cannes conference in September with a number of carriers who are worried by the fact that costs are rising more rapidly in Europe than elsewhere. Equally, a few IATA members are strongly opposed to any increases, and there have been pro posals for lower promotional fares. On balance, however, industry observers feel that fares will go up. Another proposal, which also appears likely to be imple mented, is that return fares should be increased to equal the sum of the two single journeys. At present they are 5 per cent lower. After the necessary unanimous agreement within IATA, approval for fare increases will be needed from the Governments concerned. The US Government is involved on certain European routes, and the CAB may well offer some resistance. The raising of fares on the North Atlantic was one of the issues which remained unresolved when the Cannes conference broke up indecisively. The chief reason was the fact that the US Civil Aeronautics Board had issued a prior warning that it would not agree to such increases. AIR CANADA'S NEW TOP MEN THE appointment last week of Mr Yves Pratte as chairman and chief executive officer, and of Mr John R. Baldwin, formerly Deputy Minister of Transport, as president of Air Canada, settles a long-standing question for the airline. Both have strong Government affiliations and this may mean that the authorities intend, after all, to retain the status quo. As explained in Flight for September 19 (page 435), a number of alternative plans for the airline are under consideration. Mr Yves Pratte Mr John Baldwin including a public shareholding, the severance of its connec tion with Canadian National Railways, a Crown Corporation, and a merger with CP Air. Mr James Richardson, Minister without Portfolio in the Government, heads a study group which has been making a complete examination of the Canadian airline situation and is expected to present a report soon. LOTs First Tu-134 The first Tu-134 aft-engined twin-jet for Polish Air Lines LOT arrived at Warsaw (Okecie) on Novem ber 6. It is registered SP-LGA. Airside-Townside Passengers on Cambrian's 0730hr Liverpool- London service on weekdays can now use an "Executive Express" coach direct from the Heathrow apron to Trafalgar Square. Trans Carribean Leases 727 A Boeing 727 has been leased for a 12-year period to Trans Caribbean Airways by Lease Plan International Corp, which had previously been concerned primarily with the leasing of business and commuter-type aircraft such as the Beech 99. Crash in Laos An Air America C-46 crashed after take-off at Savannakhet, Laos, while on its way to Vientiane, carrying employees of the US Agency for International Development and supplies from Pakse. The accident followed engine failure. According to first reports there were two survivors among the 23 passengers and five crew members. European 747 Club Iberia of Spain, which has three Boeing 747s on order, is reported to be interested in joining the KSS consortium formed by KLM, SAS and Swissair to co-operate in the equipment, operation and maintenance of their 747s. KSS (see Flight for November 7, page 735) is part of a larger consortium of European airlines, known as the Montparnasse Group, which has similar but wider aims in co-operation. "
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