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Aviation History
1971
1971 - 0086.PDF
FLIGHT International, 21 January 1971 BOAC AGREEMENT ON 747 FOLLOWING talks which began in July 1969, and a dispute which has kept BOAC's 747s on the ground for nearly a year (they have not yet entered service), the corporation and its pilots have agreed rates for flying the Boeing 747. As predicted in Flight last week, page 45, the agreement has been reached on the basis of a flat maximum rate, which is independent of the type of aircraft flown. Senior captains on all types will receive £9,000 a year, which represents a rise of about £400 on their previous maximum possible salary, and the bid-line system has been dropped. The £9,000 will all be pensionable at a rate variable between 35 per cent and 60 per cent for captains, according to length of service. The previous BOAC offer of £11,500, which was rejected by the pilots, was not wholly pensionable. The previous maximum rate for a senior captain was £8,578 if he flew his maximum allocation of hours, but of this only £6,700 was pensionable. Now that the bid-line system, whereby senior pilots were able to use their seniority to claim extra flying hours and thus more money, is to be dropped, less senior crews who were unable always to earn their theoretical maximum pay will receive effective increases of between about £700 to £1,000, and should get more flying time. The first BOAC services to New York with the 747 should now begin twice weekly in April, with daily flights beginning in May. The airline will take delivery of its second batch of three 747s shortly, with two due to arrive in February and one in March. They will be flown initially with three-pilot crews, but BOAC and Balpa have agreed to carry out an evaluation aimed at achieving two-pilot operation by the late autumn. SPEED NEEDED SENATOR Stuart Symington urged the US Civil Aeronautics Board last week to speed up its rate hearings and authorise fare increases "before the nation's airlines go broke." He recalled that in its final days the last Congress approved an emergency $125 million (£52 million) loan guarantee to keep the bankrupt Penn Central railway running. He added: "To prevent disaster in another area of transportation, prompt consideration is needed for the shaky financial situation in which the airline industry presently finds itself." With few exceptions, Mr Symington said, airlines were losing more money than at any time in their history. These losses had a chain reaction in the aircraft industry. "Inability of the airlines to honour their contracts could lead to catastrophe," he said. He listed several reasons: rising labour costs, excessive competition on routes and the economic recession which had resulted in less travel business. But the most important cause, he said, was "the failure of the CAB to grant fare increases so as to enable the airlines to cover their growing costs." The CAB has authorised increases in the last two years totalling 11 per cent. Mr Symington said that this was not enough, considering that the traveller paid 39 per cent more for a hotel room and 56 per cent more for a meal than he had done ten years ago. ONLY £2.5 MILLION THE Government has invested £18.75 million in the development of the BAC One-Eleven and has recovered only £2.44 million to date. These figures were given in Parliament last week by the Minister of Aviation Supply, Mr Frederick Corfield, in reply to a question from Mr Leslie Huckfield. "Further recoveries" were expected from future sales of aircraft and spares, said Mr Corfield. BAC has now sold 204 One-Elevens, of which 135 are for export and worth more than £200 million. TRISTAR BACKING DETAILS THE order for 50 Lockheed TriStars placed by Air Hold ings was supported by an indemnity from Rolls-Royce, and half of the commitment to a maximum of £5 million was underwritten by the British Government, the Minister of Aviation Supply, Mr Frederick Corfield, told the House of Commons last week. Air Holdings placed the order in 1968, at the time that Rolls-Royce won the contract to supply the engines for the aircraft. In exchange Lockheed granted Air Holdings the exclusive sales rights for all One of lnex-Adria's two DC-9s, recently introduced, pictured at Benina Airport, Benghazi, on a charter flight Ar •iUSmKi mmm '§MM Kin aES
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