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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 0016.PDF
FLIGHT International, I January 1970 AIR TRANSPORT SIBERIAN RIGHTS CRYSTALLISE AN agreement which will allow Paris-Tokyo services by the trans-Siberian route was signed in Paris last week by the Russian Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr Yevgeny Loginov, and by the French Government. It is likely that twice-weekly services on the route by Air France, Aeroflot and Japan Air Lines will begin in March. Meanwhile the broad terms of an agreement which will allow BOAC to overfly Siberia, and Aeroflot to carry fifth-freedom passengers between London and New York, have now been hammered out following meetings in Moscow (as briefly reported in Flight last week, page 957). But a great deal of work by legal experts is still to be done, and signature of the agreement by both Governments is still required before it can come into force. It is expected that, before signing, the Russians may ask for further transatlantic rights for Aeroflot— for example to Canada or to Central America. The agreement will confer equal rights for the Tokyo- Moscow-London route between the three airlines involved, BOAC, Aeroflot and JAL. As at present envisaged, services will begin in May with two flights a week in either direction by each airline. BOAC will have traffic rights between London and Moscow, as well as between London and Tokyo. It will also have stop over rights in Moscow, but the term "stopover" has yet to be exactly defined—as to whether it includes, for example, passengers "stopping over" from BEA or other airlines. Fifth- freedom rights for BOAC between Moscow and Tokyo are not envisaged. There is to be a pool agreement over the route between BOAC, BEA, Aeroflot and JAL, but negotiations on this have not yet begun. Depending on the terms of such an agreement, it may well prove advantageous to BOAC to take over some—or all—of BEA's London-Moscow traffic. The route, it would appear, will provide the two British corporations with an opportunity for some route rationalisation along the lines suggested in the British Government's recent White Paper on air transport. IATA fares will be enforced between London and Tokyo, so far as can be judged at present. This means that the end-to- end one-way fare will be £282 7s, the same as for the polar route to Tokyo via Anchorage and the more traditional Far East route, east-about from London. Such a fare structure, related to the longest route, has already meant low break-even load factors (in the mid-thirties) on the polar route. The trans- Siberian route is about 3ihr shorter than the polar route, and it should prove possible for BOAC to achieve a break-even load factor of less than 30 per cent. In spite of the attractions of the route, it is unlikely that BOAC will drop any of its polar flights to Japan, especially with developing oil activity in Alaska and the possibility of increased tourist traffic to Anchorage in the future. US GIVES "GO" TO LAKER AUTHORISATION from the US Civil Aeronautics Board for Laker Airways to operate transatlantic charters has been approved by President Nixon. The authority is for group and inclusive-tour charters between Britain and the USA. The airline said last week that it planned to operate 140 flights this year between London, Manchester or Prestwick on the one hand and Toronto or New York on the other. Laker has two Boeing 707-120Bs which will be used in 152-seat configuration, and offices have been opened in New York and Toronto. Laker's 1969 traffic—431 million passenger-miles, 690 million passenger-km—was 79 per cent up on the previous year, and the number of passengers carried—335,272—was 44 per cent up. Mr Freddie Laker, the airline's chairman and managing director, made a plea last week for a more liberal Government attitude towards North Atlantic charters. "The British indepen dent airlines developed the European package-holiday trade," he said, "and they can certainly develop the North Atlantic if they are only given the opportunity. This is a vital part of the development of air transport which was ignored by the Govern ment White Paper." Last week Laker Airways (Leasing) Ltd, the Laker group holding company, announced that consolidated group profits for the year ending March 31, 1969, were £482,687 gross and £480,187 net. The airline-operating company's profit for the year was £434,000 gross, after charging depreciation of £332,000 and interest of £303,500. Net profit after tax was £432,000. CF6-50A RUNS AS briefly reported last week in the Flight report from Toulouse and Munich (page 977), the CF6-50A—powerplant for the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 and the Airbus Industrie A-300B—ran at 50,8501b thrust, 228.825N, on December 13. The engine, which had first run only two days previously, was said to have behaved well. Particularly significant was the satisfactory operation of the three 1-p compressor booster stages and the variable by-pass door system, not common to the smaller 40,0001 b-thrust CF6-6. The first CF6-6s for the medium-range DC-10-10 prototype have now been despatched by General Electric. MONEY FOR THE SST APPROVAL has been given by United States Senate and House of Representatives members in conference for the spending of $85 million (£35 million) on the Boeing 2707 SST during 1970. This is $5 million more than the sum originally recommended by the Senate appropriations sub-committee, but $11 million less than that approved by the House of Repre sentatives and requested by the President. The next step is for each House to vote on the conference report, before the bill is finally submitted to the President. According to Aviation Daily, had the money allocated been as low as the $80 million approved by the appropriations sub-committee, then there would have been serious delay in getting the building of the prototype under way. Development costs and unit selling price (already estimated by Flight to be £1,900 million and £18 mil lion respectively) would certainly have risen. It seems likely that they will still do so, although now to a lesser extent. Next year the FAA will be asking for $314 million (£131 million) of public money for the SST. MAINTAINING CONCORDE THE 4,300hr flight test programme of Concorde is already being run as an airline operation from the maintenance standpoint, said Mr G. A. Wearen, service manager, BAC, at the FAA Aviation Maintenance symposium in Oklahoma recently. By the time the pre-production aircraft flew in 1971, he added, the time between checks which were now necessary, for example, every ten hours would rise to 60 hours. By the
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