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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0692.PDF
618 FLIGHT International. 17 April 1969 To be officially opened by the Queen today, the new £12 million No I Passenger Terminal at Heathrow Airport, London, has in fact been in use for domestic services since November 6 and is now handling about 7,000 passengers a day. Capacity is 2,500 passengers an hour. The airlines which on May 7 will transfer international operations to the terminal (described in "Flight" for December 5, page 938) are BEA, Aer Lingus, Autair International, BKS and Cambrian. The picture shows the domestic check-in area AIR TRANSPORT. MILAN CRASH: ASYMMETRIC TROUBLES PRELIMINARY investigation into the accident to a British United Airways One-Eleven, G-ASJJ, at Milan on January 14 has shown that there was an engine failure almost immediately after take-off, and that it is likely that the crew misidentified the failed engine and throttled back the serviceable engine by mistake. This was stated last week by the Board of Trade, which added that there were no defects in the flying controls of the aircraft, and no reason to believe that the aircraft was being operated other than in accordance with legal requirements. There were no fatalities among the 26 passengers and seven crew (see Flight for January 23, page 125). The reasons for the loss of thrust, said the board, were not yet fully understood. The apparent failure of the crew to comply with relevant company drills and cockpit procedures was being investigated further in collaboration with the Accidents Investigation Branch. BUA GIVES UP TROOPING THE end of trooping activities for British United Airways has come with the voluntary withdrawal by the airline from its two-year Ministry of Defence contract for flights between Britain and Germany. The contract was due to run until September 30, but BUA told the Ministry that it would not be able to meet the programme for the coming summer. The services are to be taken over by Britannia Airways, which has tendered successfully for a new two-year contract worth £1.5 million and about 2,000hr a year of mid-week flying. BUA says that the reason for its withdrawal is the increase in its scheduled services, coupled with strong growth in inclusive-tour operations during the past year. The airline, which was making a profit on trooping services up to three years ago (in fact more or less depended on them until about 1962), is now losing on them and regards them as merely a contribution towards overheads. The airline was also finding the insistence of the Ministry of Defence on rearward-facing seats a nuisance, as the aircraft used for middle-of-the-day trooping were also used, with forward-facing seats, for morning and evening Interjet (domestic) and Dutch services. For Britannia the situation is different, as the airline has no scheduled services. It feels that the trooping—predominantly mid-day, mid-week activity—will complement its inclusive- tour operations, which peak at weekends. Whereas BUA was mounting 30 One-Eleven flights a week, Britannia with its larger 737-200s will operate only 17. Moreover the requirement for rearward-facing seats has been dropped from the Britannia contract, although it is believed that this signifies an individual concession forced on the Ministry by the short time available for negotiating a new contract, rather than a change in Government policy. CONFRONTATION IN AUSTRALIA IN protest at the January 1 increase of the already high landing fees in Australia—and at Sydney, in particular—eight airlines paid, towards the end of March, fees covering only the charges prior to the increase. Four others paid the fees in full, but under protest. Those which initially refused to pay the increase were Pan American, BOAC, Air-India, Alitalia, Lufthansa, USA, Air NZ and PAL; all agreed to pay in due course, but said unofficially that their fees had been withheld to stress their concern at the continuing increase in landing and air navigation charges in Australia. Those who paid under protest were Malaysia-Singapore, South African Airways, KLM and Canadian Pacific. The January 1 increase in landing fees was the eighth to be made. The increase was generally of 10 per cent, with an additional 10.7 per cent for aircraft with a gross weight of more than 200,0001b. International airlines operating 707s and DC-8s thus have to pay a total increase of 20.7 per cent on last year's charges. For a 707 landing at Darwin as well as Sydney, the total fee is SA1.739 (£815). One of the hardest-hit airlines is Air New Zealand on regional tran-Tasman flights. The airline needs the combined fares of 16 economy class passengers to pay for a landing at Sydney. £5 MILLION DEAL FOR CHANNEL A CHARTER contract worth more than £5 million has been signed between Lyons Tours, an Air Holdings company, and Channel Airways, covering the three years J 970-72, and claimed to be largest such contract so far signed in Britain. Channel will fly an all-jet programme with One-Elevens, Tridents and Comets, and will provide Lyons Tours with some 120,000 seats in 1970 alone. The airline, which has no Comets at present, was unable to say as Flight went to press how many would be acquired. The contract, which covers the entire Lyons programme, represents for the travel company a break with British United Airways, with which it has had charter contracts since before the latter left the Air Holdings group. BWIA Management Change Mr William Mitchell is to become managing director and chief executive of British West Indian Airways, and Mr Paul Benscoter is to be the airline's deputy general manager. Mr Mitchell has been until now special assistant to the airline's chairman, and Mr Benscoter was formerly a vice-president of Northwest Airlines. Trans Meridian Management Mr Alister Macleod has been appointed managing director of Trans Meridian (London), the all-cargo airline, based at Stansted, and Gp Capt Walter Grey has been appointed general manager. Mr Macleod was formerly managing director of Lloyd International Airways and Gp Capt Grey was formerly Commanding Officer of an RAF air transport base. Iberia in Britain Mr Julio G. Soria has been appointed Iberia's general manager for the UK and Ireland. He was previously technical commercial manager for the airline's Europe and Middle/Far East sales area and is chairman of lATA's agency committee, traffic area 2. His predecessor in London, Mr Manuel Martin, has been appointed general manager for the US and Canada. Air Transport continued on page 627
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