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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 2017.PDF
180-181 FLIGHT International, 10 August 1972 AIR TRANSPORT BEA in Berlin With the easing of restrictions on road traffic be tween West Germany and West Berlin, and a decline in air traffic this year, BEA could find the going tough. Last week, however, the corporation's Super One-Eleven Division announced an all-out drive to increase its share of the market, chiefly through improved customer service. T. E. FORD looks at the background to the airline's German operations. AMONG THE RESPONSIBILITIES of the Super One-Eleven M\ Division of BEA under its director Roy Watts is the • m operation of the internal German services (IGS). The division was formed in 1971 in a widespread reorganisation of the airline's activities; as well as the IGS it undertakes British domestic services from Manchester and a few from London, plus an increasing number of international routes from Manchester. The internal German routes carry by far the greatest number of passengers; the division as a whole is anticipating a total of 2-8 million in the current year, and more than two million of these are on the IGS. It is notable that on these services the demand for seats is more constant throughout the year than on other One- Eleven 500 routes; the peak/trough ratio is around 100 per cent, compared with 115 to 130 per cent on Manchester services. In 1971 Roy Watts observed that the routes operated by his division were among the most competitive in BEA, as they had an average length of 230 miles and were directly comparable with road or rail travel. In Germany airline competition is fierce, although the IGS are understood to have been profitable in 1971-72. The division as a whole, however, is not thought to have had quite such a good year. In 1972-73 an overall improvement is anticipated, although BEA has noted a 6-5 per cent drop in traffic on the IGS since January. When the first BEA DC-3 took off in Germany in 1946, it was the beginning of services operated by three airlines in the Western part of that country, the others being Pan American Airways and Air France. Pan Am operated DC-4s which were then readily available from surplus military stocks. These airlines had been designated to provide services to and from West Berlin and occupied offices at Tempelhof Airport. Traffic gradually built up until 1948 when BEA played a major part in the civil part of the Berlin Airlift, a period in which Allied aircraft supplied all the requirements of the .city's two million people. This lasted until May 1949, and at the busiest period of the airlift aircraft were landing or taking off every 45sec. Many of the BEA pilots who took part in this operation are still flying on the German services today. In 1948 two new runways were constructed at Tempelhof which greatly improved the facilities. The terminal build- , ing had been designed in the 1930s to be the largest in the world and after post-war repairs has continued to give good service at this very busy airport. Up to 1958 BEA was compelled to charter some equip ment, but in that year Viscounts were introduced in Germany. In 1960 Pan Am re-equipped with DC-6Bs and , -mmwmmmm^m*m stepped up frequency and capacity on all routes. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 had a drastic effect on passenger traffic, and BEA cut back its services from 18 to ten a week. Pan Am at this time was operating 27 ser vices, a number which it refused to reduce. Soon after this the Federal German Government subsidised air passengers to the extent of 20 per cent on each return ticket whether bought in West Berlin or West Germany. Its action gave rise to an unprecedented demand. Meanwhile BEA had a slight equipment advantage with Viscount 800s, which had somewhat greater range flexi bility than the DC-6Bs, as well as improved seating. At about this time Air France began to operate Caravelle services from Tegel but was very conscious of Pan Am's frequency advantage. To try to remedy the situation, the French airline withdrew its aircraft from the Diisseldorf route but increased frequencies to Frankfurt and Munich. The only effect, however, was to increase the losses of Air France. In April 1966 Pan Am introduced the Boeing 727 on to the German routes which gave it considerable advantages over BEA's Viscounts, although the American airline had to face a drop in load factors in the first year of jet operation. The choice of equipment for BEA eventually went to the 99-seat One-Eleven 500 (which BEA calls the "Super One-Eleven"). In the interim period before its introduction the Viscount services were further improved and the necessity of retraining crews for the One-Elevens meant the short-term use of Comets, in spite of their unsuitability for short-haul routes. With the introduction of new equipment and to meet Pan American competition, BEA and Air France entered into a partnership agreement in 1969 by which BEA replaced Caravelle services from Tegel with One-Eleven services from Tempelhof at a reduced frequency. These operations were on the routes to Frankfurt and Munich, with BEA aircrew but a mixed BEA/Air France cabin crew. Pan Am's answer was to take up some of the frequencies given up by the partnership and, although BEA emerged from a financial deficit on these routes, Air France claimed that it was continuing to lose money. The partnership is still in being but is to end on October 31. The agreement affected the livery adopted for the Super One-Eleven fleet, but all 18 aircraft have now been repainted in the full BEA colours with the corporation's Union Jack motif. Meanwhile, Air France continues to operate its single Tegel-Paris daily service with Caravelles, but from November 1 this will operate through Cologne—
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