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Aviation History
1971
1971 - 0048.PDF
FLIGHT International, 14 January 1971 45 Northeast Trident at Newcastle sports the distinctive modern livery adopted recently by this British Air Services airline Airtours 707s : February decision N EXT MONTH BEA Airtours will place an order for turbofan-powered 707-120Bs, but they will not necessarily be the seven ex-American Airlines 123Bs which the DTI gave Airtours permission to buy last November. Delivery will be made towards the end of this year in time for the 1972 season, when the aircraft will replace Comets. They are specifically intended for operations in the European IT market. BEA Airtours has no plans to go in for transatlantic and other long-range charters and would fit long-range tanks (as Pan International has done) only if there were demand from tour operators to fly occasional trips within their time charters. Airtours was constituted to fly European ITs and intends to stick to them at present—fitting long-range navigation equipment to second-hand and essentially medium-range 707s could prove an expensive business. There are no plans to buy the long-range 320 or 420 series 707s or DC-8s—in any case the latter could be expensive to certificate. Meanwhile, BOAC is almost certainly moving towards the establishment of a non-Iata charter subsidiary. A corporation spokesman confirmed recently that the possi bility was under consideration but added that it had also been studied on a number of occasions in the past. But if one thinks in terms of the Airways Board and the possibility that it might recommend the formation of a joint BEA/ BOAC non-scheduled carrier (and talks between the air lines have already taken place), BOAC's 707-420s would seem to be the ideal vehicles. Airtours is not interested in BOAC's long-range 707-420s at present, and these are certainly not available in the required time—BOAC will need them for at least another two years, and with their 747s still on the ground the 707 fleet is fully utilised. If only for this reason, sale of the 707s is unlikely in the near future. Further evidence is that the period of amortisation on the 18 aircraft was increased from 10^ to 14 years during 1970, giving them a higher book value. The original 15, ordered in 1956, cost £40 million with spares. Airtours has a budget of £10.4 million within which to work for its short-term re-equipment, including spares and introductory costs. Dividing this by seven does not produce the cost of each 707-120B and the company is unwilling to disclose that figure. But Airtours is planning on a six-year amortisation period, by which time airbus types will be firmly in its plans. A 15-year period would be required to write down to zero value any new 707s. Similarly, new One-Elevens or Tridents would be expensive, and would lack the required payload- range performance—hence the stop-gap purchase of cheap second-hand aircraft. The trade in second-hand Boeing jets is booming and Aviation Daily estimates that 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the entire airline jet fleet is up for sale. All 15 720s, taken by Boeing from Eastern last year in part-exchange for 727-200s, have now been resold. Five were recently delivered to Calair, the Frankfurt- based charter company, and another four have been delivered to other operators—two to Korean, one to Trans Polar of Oslo and one to an Indianapolis travel club. Another five are due to go to the Danish charter company Conair between March and June, while the last of the 15 has been provisionally sold to TIFA of Belgium. Boeing has a $4 million backlog of orders for bringing second-hand aircraft (mainly 720s) up to "new" standard. Their aircraft modification branch at Wichita had a turn over of $8.8 million during 1970 and expects to have an income of between $10 million and $15 million this year. In the hope of getting modification work, Boeing is work ing with Pan American to sell 11 long-range 707-320s, which the airline has in store at Wichita. BOAC re-lifed its 707-420s some time ago, and if the 747 position doesn't improve it looks as though they are going to need it. Six 747s will be with the airline by March (BOAC has three already), and another six are to be delivered this coming winter. All 12 will be in service in 1972 if the dispute with the pilots is settled. It now seems possible that the pilots may settle for a flat-rate pay structure which would be independent of aircraft type. This would allow the corporation more flexibility in picking 747 and Concorde crews. An alert bulletin issued by the FAA requires inspection of the inboard flaps of Boeing 747s after each landing. Flap fairings have been lost when the flap roller has jumped from its track. JAL Stake in IAL The latest and thirty-fourth airline to take a shareholding in International Aeradio Ltd is Japan Air Lines. IAL provides equipment and staff for the operation of aviation technical services and telecommuni cations systems in more than 50 countries. Early Air Afrique DC-lOs The first of three long-range DC-10-30s for Air Afrique will now be delivered in February 1973 instead of in November that year. The second DC-10 will be delivered in November 1973 or in April 1974, and the third in November 1975. Alitalia reports that its 1970 traffic—5.6 million passengers carried—was 14.3 per cent up on 1969. Freight, at some 100,000 tonnes, was 14 per cent up. The airline's chairman, Ing Bruno Velani, said last week that the load factor in 1970 had remained at the 1969 level; this, he added, was of particular significance in view of current capacity increases.
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