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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 2016.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 August 1972 179 FINANCE FOR BRITISH TRIJETS THE US Export-Import Bank has approved an $18 million loan to Laker Airways towards its purchase of two DC-10-10s, the bank announced recently (as briefly reported in Flight last week). The loan is actually to four Japanese banks, who will re-lend it to Laker, and represents 45 per cent of the $40 million cost of the two aircraft. The Japanese banks—Bank of Tokyo, Mitsui Bank, Fuji Bank and Sumitomo Bank—became involved because the two aircraft were originally ordered by them for All Nippon. The airline came under government pressure not to introduce wide-body jets for the time being, however, and Laker Airways took over the commitment for the two air craft. Laker Airways will put down a 10 per cent deposit ($4 million) on the DC-lOs, and will repay the loan in 20 six- monthly instalments on each aircraft, beginning six months after delivery (which is due in October and November). The Japanese banks will start repaying the loan to Eximbank in ten instalments beginning in 1978, and will pay the US bank an interest rate of 6 per cent. A second Eximbank loan approved recently is of $16-2 million to Airlease International Management Ltd, the London-based leasing company, towards its purchase of two TriStars which it will lease to Court Line. Eximbank said that this loan also represented 45 per cent of the cost of the aircraft—in this case $36 million—and that the remaining 55 per cent would be paid by a cash payment by Airlease, which is a partnership of leading British banks and finance houses. Airlease told Flight that negotiations on the finance of Court's two TriStars were still continuing. The company confirmed that the aircraft would be leased to the airline. CHARTER PLANS AWAITED THE lata North Atlantic traffic conference in Montreux ended inconclusively on July 28 with a decision to hold a top-level policy meeting in Geneva before the full traffic conference assembles at Torremolinos on September 12. The airlines' chief difficulty in reviewing North Atlantic fares at Montreux was the fluid situation with regard to charter regulations. The governments whose airlines are engaged in the North Atlantic charter traffic are in the process of revising the rules in order to eliminate abuses and establish a satisfactory permanent system. Some form of advanced-booking charter is likely to result (for the British proposals see Flight for July 20, page 76). As lata pointed out, "the delegates found that the final results of such governmental negotiations, which may not be known until later in the year, are critical to any decisions which the airlines have to take." The govern ments are due to meet in Ottawa this month to consider their various proposals, and the British Government at least is trying to get a new system agreed and established in order to be available from next spring. Progress made by the governments will be a major topic at the policy meeting in Geneva. The meeting will also examine issues raised at Montreux in connection with part-charters (the carriage of charter passengers on scheduled services) and charter pricing. BRITISH AIRWAYS POSTS KEY positions on the British Airways Board will go to BOAC men with the appointments, announced last week, of Howard Phelps as group personnel director and Peter Hermon as group management services director. Mr Phelps is BOAC's personnel director and Mr Hermon is the cor poration's management services director. Another appointment announced last week is that of K. G. Wilkinson, BEA chairman-elect, to the post of chair man, BOAC Engine Overhaul Ltd, Treforest. He will replace Keith Granville in this part-time job. R. Spencer, BEA financial director, also gets an additional post—as deputy chairman of BOAC Associated Companies. Five out of seven rank-and-file executive members of the British Airways Board are BOAC men, and only one is BEA. The additional posts for Mr Wilkinson and Mr Spencer appear to represent a move to redress the imbalance. The new appointments all take effect from September 1, the date on which Keith Granville and Henry Marking move from their posts as chairmen of BOAC and BEA to become deputy chairman and group managing director respectively of the British Airways Board. Mr Phelps' job as group personnel director is likely to prove a hot seat in British Airways. Initial reorganisation proposals (see Flight for July 27, page 111) have already been attacked by union representatives, and the process of rationalising the activities of the two corporations will be exceedingly delicate from the point of view of indus trial relations. The BAB chairman, David Nicolson, has not ruled out the possibility of redundancies, although he has suggested that with continued growth they may be avoided. BCAL DOMESTIC GAIN A GROWING share of British domestic trunk services for British Caledonian is indicated by statistics for 1971, published last week by the Civil Aviation Authority.* The figures show that total traffic between London (Heathrow and Gatwick) and Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast—1-75 million passengers—was 1 • 5 per cent less than in 1970. The proportion passing through Heathrow—in other words BEA's share of the total—fell from 85-5 per cent in 1970 to 81-4 per cent last year. The Gatwick traffic— BCAL's share—thus rose from 14-5 per cent to 18-6 per cent. BEA's actual decrease was 6-3 per cent, to a total of 1-42 million passengers in 1971; BCAL's traffic rose 12-6 per cent to 325,500. Overall, British domestic traffic, at 9-8 million passengers, was little changed from 1970 (9-4 million), says the Civil Aviation Authority. • Also published last weekf was the latest set of financial statistics on British airlines. It has appeared belatedly to say the least—the figures refer to 1970 (even Icao managed to produce international financial data for 1970 by last January). It includes airline-by-airline breakdowns for the two corporations, British Air Services and seven independents. The reason that so few companies appear individually is that participation is voluntary; most major airlines are there, but Court Line and Dan-Air are notable exceptions. BENEFITS OF COMPETITION? NON-STOP services between London and Los Angeles are planned by BOAC. The corporation has made no announce ment yet, but it is expected to operate three direct flights a week, beginning during the current financial year—in other words before March 31. The move is clearly being taken to meet competition from British Caledonian, which is due to begin daily non stop services to Los Angeles on April 1. BOAC at present operates five VC10 services a week to Los Angeles via New York as part of its trans-Pacific service to Honolulu, Nandi and Sydney. It is probable that BOAC will drop one of the five, and will thus serve Los Angeles seven times a week in all. The corporation has been criticised for serving the US West Coast only as part of the wider Pacific flights. Jumbo-sized airmiss An airmiss involving two Boeing 747s over Tokyo Bay was reported on August 2. The air craft, one of Japan Air Lines and one of Pan American, were at 4,000ft and closed to within 60m; visual avoiding action was taken. lata airlines have agreed that the selling price of fares in sterling in the UK and Ireland should be increased by 4 per cent from August 14. The increase is to compensate for the downward float of sterling in relation to the US dollar and other currencies. The agreement is subject to Government approval. * CA6: Domestic Passenger Traffic; t CA8: Airline Financial Statistics. Both published in the Business Monitor series by HM Stationery Office (PO Box 569, London SE1).
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