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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 2399.PDF
CAL tlantic rowth "Flight" examines BCAL's achievements, prospects—and problems—in the light of the Edwards Committee's terms of reference: "To propose... what changes may be desirable to enable the airline industry to make its full contribution to the development of the economy and the service and safety of the travelling public." WHEN WE WERE CALEDONIAN AIRWAYS," says Mr John de la Haye, deputy managing director of British Caledonian, "we could come and go as we wanted and do as we pleased." Times change, and the responsibili ties of Caledonian's successor, British Caledonian, are now not only to its shareholders, but also to the Government and the airline industry as a whole. On May 2, 1969, the Edwards Committee's report was published on British air transport in the seventies. One of its recommendations was that a "second force" airline should be established from within the independent airline industry, to operate long- and short-haul routes worldwide as an integral part of the whole British airline effort. In December 1970 Caledonian Airways, a ten-year-old charter operator, took over an ailing British United Airways at the instigation of the Government, after several weeks of increasingly strident press reports to the effect that BUA was to be bought by BOAC. The result of the merger was Caledonian/BUA, now British Caledonian Airways. This airline has become the sole British flag-carrier to West Africa, has been allowed by the Civil Aviation Authority to serve Paris and, operating in the world's most demand ing airline environment, flies to Los Angeles and New York. After one of the most hotly argued series of licence hearings yet held in Britain, it has been awarded so-called "Cannonball" licences to Singapore via Bahrein, to Houston via Atlanta and Boston, and to Vancouver British Caledonian has always been a much-talked-about airline. It came into being as a result of one of the most fundamental rethinks of British air transport policy since the Brabazon report. Its role was mapped out in advance —to expand the British share of air transport for the benefit of the travelling public. Expansion was inevitable. The Edwards report said that "a route structure should be BCAL ATLANTIC PERFORMANCE Gross passenger load factor (including non-fare-paying passengers) across the Atlantic To New York To Los Angeles April 48 38 May .. June July August 63 56 66 58 47 53 62 68 devised for the second force which should enable it to achieve a scale of approximately 4,000 million seat-miles by 1975." Last year the airline generated 2,859 million seat- miles and the introduction this year of services to New York and Los Angeles, plus the start of flights next year to Singapore, Bahrein, Boston, Atlanta, Houston and Van couver, should enable the 4,000 million figure to be reached within the next two years. But this will not be achieved without some penalties. The major one is financial—last year BCAL lost £190,000 on a turnover of £53 million. In all its ten years of existence Caledonian never failed to make a profit, and even in its first year of operation BCAL still managed to make a profit of £252,000 before tax. But, as John de la Haye says: "We're mortgaging the next two years or so against the future." Development costs for the two existing routes across the Atlantic to the United States are £1 million, of which sales promotion accounts for £400,000. The airline admits that the Los Angeles service is not up to expecta tions. Applications for passports in California this year are 30 per cent less than they were 12 months ago. But revenue load factors are creeping up towards a more profit able level. New York is a different story, however, and load factors have been much more steady. BCAL now calculates that a profit on the two services combined will be achieved in four years instead of the five originally expected—and budgeted for. That the airline has deferred its much debated wide-body decision and has been leasing air craft rather than buying has been an open secret for some time. In any event, the wide-body-look Boeing 707-320C, says the airline, has proved to be ideal for existing traffic levels. BCAL clearly subscribes to the school of thought which says that the wide-bodied aircraft do not enable an airline to provide a better passenger service and are not all that attractive to passengers. Besides that, the airline considers there to be only two routes which could "com fortably" support a larger aircraft—Gatwick-New York and Gatwick-Toronto. For these services the 5,300-mile- range Lockheed TriStar Dash 2LR seems to be the favoured aircraft, particularly after the events of this last week (see news story on page 465) and BCAL appears to be quite happy to wait for it.
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