FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1975
1975 - 0909.PDF
FLIGHT International. 22 May 1975 815 AIR TRANSPORT INVICTA UP FOR SALE THE European Ferries Group is to dispose of its 76 per cent holding in Invicta International Airlines. The airline lost £1 • 1 million between April 1973 and December 1974— the shipping group acquired its controlling interest after Invicta had been forced to suspend operations in February 1973. Invicta owns two 720Bs and five Vanguards. No financial data for Invicta, or indeed for any other British airline, will be found in the digest of 1971-73 statistics for non-scheduled airlines recently published by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The relevant section of the documents says that the reporting forms "are to be filed by Icao contracting States for each of their air transport operators" provided that they offer non- scheduled services only, with aircraft having a maximum take-off weight over 9 tonnes. Icao requires a compre hensive breakdown of assets and liabilities, together with a statement of profit and loss. The British Civil Aviation Authority is empowered under Section 35 of the Civil Aviation Act (1971) to obtain such data from the carriers. Publication of the data is covered by Section 36; subsection (la) requires the CAA to seek the consent of the carrier before publication, but (lb) gives the Secretary of State for Trade powers to determine that the information can be published without the air line's agreement. However, in that case the Secretary of State must consider any representations the airlines may make. Since 1971 the CAA has been attempting to persuade the British non-scheduled carriers to allow publication. In this period no fewer than five of the 15 UK airlines listed in the Icao publication have ceased operations following financial failure: Air International Charter, Court Line, Donaldson, Lloyd and Midland Air Cargo. Court Line notoriously left massive debts, both to the travelling public and to the travel trade in the UK and in Europe; so much to the last that ex-Court Line aircraft now operated by other British airlines have been re-registered to prevent their impoundment by overseas creditors. Data for 89 individual airlines are included in the Icao Royal Brunei Airlines' first aircraft is a Boeing 737-200, delivered earlier this month. Services started on May 14 digest; West Germany reports neither traffic, financial nor fleet data for separate airlines, but gives a total for ten in 1971, six in 1972 and seven in 1973. Of the 89 individuals, 30 did not report financial data, half of these being British. Among these 89 there have been 17 failures since 1971, eight of which have been among non-reporting airlines. The airlines for which financial statistics were not reported —one-third of the total—accounted for half the financial failures. West Germany reported totals for an average of eight airlines a year in 1971-73; since 1971 two airlines on average have ceased operations each year. These figures may be interpreted as testifying to the benefits of financial reporting. Many non-scheduled air lines are privately owned or are attached (like Invicta) to larger groups, either holding companies or shipping consortia; these airlines do not always publish their financial results. The CAA's priorities in declining to coerce the airlines into publication are questionable. The authority is clearly anxious not to engage in a long legal battle in the corridors of the Department of Trade nor to antagonise the airlines; although the CAA is hopeful that the end of its negotia tions is in sight, that the British submissions for Icao's 1974 figures will be complete and that financial data for all British carriers are to be published in June or July, there is no guarantee that no British carrier will withdraw its consent before that time, nor that the last objectors will be won over. BALPA REJECTS CAA CHARGES THE British Air Line Pilots' Association last week rejected the increased licence-renewal charges imposed by the British Civil Aviation Authority (see leading article, Flight last week, and May 2 issue, page 724). In a letter to Balpa members Capt Jack Wickson, the association's chairman, said that Balpa's executive council considered the increases unacceptable and that the CAA had been informed. The letter urges "some form of concerted action" if Balpa's abjections are ignored. In detail, Balpa's case is that individual pilots should pay only the administrative costs involved in licence renewal, not for the services which the CAA provides in the interests
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
