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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 1106.PDF
104 BRITISH AIRWAYS SUPER ONE-ELEVEN DIVISION over the last few years, both informed and ill-informed. Aer Lingus began operating through Manchester immediately after the 1939-45 war, partly because its air craft were unable to penetrate far into the continent with a useful load without a technical stop. It is admitted that Aer Lingus stayed with Manchester when British carriers displayed little interest in developing routes from the air port. Rights through Ireland have, however, become less important to the United Kingdom and a series of negotia tions between the British and Eire Governments has re sulted in an agreement on a progressive reduction of Aer Lingus capacity through Manchester. Domestics When the Super One-Eleven Division was established in 1971 it inherited a small profit on its international routes. But it took over a loss on domestic routes of around £1-5 million. When the London-Manchester railway was electri fied in ,1966 there was an immediate drop of almost 33 per cent in the airborne traffic. At that time BEA was making seven daily flights to London, ten a week to Edinburgh and Belfast and 17 a week to Glasgow. Break-even load factors were averaging over 80 per cent. Since that time some frequencies have been reduced, mainly at weekends, and some routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow are temporarily served by Viscounts operated by the Regional Division of British Airways. On London to Manchester in particular, steps have been taken to improve passenger service. When travelling to Manchester last month, Flight intentionally checked in at the boarding pier only 17min before the scheduled (and actual) departure time. Increasingly, passengers are deciding that they will go by air if their destination is close to the airport. A London businessman—likely to be paying full fare—may well fly rather than go by train if his destination is near Ringway Airport. The difference between the air fare and the rail fare is, however, about £5. This follows the 20 per cent domestic increase allowed by the CAA earlier this year, which has affected the Division's competitive position over the last two months. Derek Brady, the marketing manager, said that the British Rail price increases of 15 per cent in mid-June had improved the position, "but we've had people at the booking office who've turned round and gone to the station when they heard our new price." British Rail's industrial relations record has also assisted British Airways. The airline has not only gained strikebound rail passengers in the short term, but has kept many of them. Brady: "In the bad old days the London- Manchester aircraft was always the first to be pulled off if someone was short of capacity down the line. But people now realise that we fly aircraft at the times we adver tise . . . and that they tend to arrive at the time we advertise." Charters Last year Roy Watts, chairman of British Airways Euro pean Division, announced that the airline was looking at the possibility of setting up a charter subsidiary at Man chester, on the lines of the British Airtours operation out of Gatwick. The equipment envisaged was the VO10, which would have been surplus to the Overseas Division's needs at about the right time. "The fuel crisis knocked that one on the head," says Stephen Hanscombe. In any event, it now appears that the VC10, at 168 seats, is too large for the off-peak months, "so it's back to the drawing board." The Division is studying a variety of aircraft, including the One-Eleven 500 with "wet" engines (unlike the aircraft CHARTER TRAFFIC GROWTH 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 % 1974-75 % increase (estimated) increase Series — 21,268 27,131 +28 33,500 +23 Ad hoc — 1,721 5,907 +243 3,000 -43 Total — 22,989 33,038 +44 36,500 +10 FLIGHT International, I August 1974 operated at present) and the Boeing 727-1100 (now certifi cated in Britain and operated by Dan-Air on IT work with il50 seats) as well as surplus Trident 2Es from the Euro pean Division. The One-Eleven appears to be favoured— the Tridents are too expensive—and up to three aircraft seem to be needed, although the timing of any move into the IT market is still very much under review. Internal German Services While much of the Super One-Eleven Division's energy and planning may be concentrated on solving the problems and developing the potential of routes out of Manchester, some 60 per cent of its traffic is still generated by the Internal German Services, for which BEA obtained rights in 1945. In the summer of il972, after a period of annual growth around 12 per cent, the Division found itself grappling with a traffic decline of 17-23 per cent a year caused by the easing of restrictions on surface access to Berlin as a result of Willi Brandt's Ostpolitik. Traffic has stabilised slightly in recent months, however, and according to Hanscombe, "It's still an £80 million-£100 million-a-year market." Even if the political situation in Germany does allow Lufthansa to serve Berlin, it is unlikely that the West German flag carrier would seek to do so. It operates its present domestic services (primarily with Boeing 737s) at a loss, despite a passenger yield which is one-third greater than that of British Airways. Capt Bob Preston, director of the Super One-Eleven Division, says that "we are hopeful that, except on the shortest routes like Berlin - Hannover and Berlin - Hamburg, the market should not fall below last year's level." The devaluation of the £ against the Deutschmark has helped to improve British Airways' yield on the IGS, although about half the Division's earnings in Germany are spent there. But, says Preston, "the first re quirement was to reduce our capacity to fit a smaller market, but this is particularly difficult because of our competitive relationship with Pan Am." Some joint capacity reductions have been made and Pan Am has withdrawn one 727-100 from the IGS, although these cuts are much less than the fall in the market. Although British Airways enjoys virtually the same rights in Germany as does Pan Am, it holds less than half the market. Air France now operates only two daily 4 Caravelle flights into Berlin's Tegel airport. In the summer of ,1972 British Airways' share was 35-4 per cent, but last winter grew to 39-2 per cent, Says Preston: "One per cent of market share is some £600,000 a year." Aircraft Aircraft are generally kept in Germany for several days at a time and are rotated back to Manchester and Heath-
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