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Aviation History
1975
1975 - 2490.PDF
712-713 AIR TRANSPORT France, stressing that the airline must be free to take its own commercial decisions. So far this year Air France has succeeded in delaying the confrontation with the French Government which stems from the the airline's increasingly urgent need for a Caravelle/707 substitute. The operation of pure-jet Caravelle 3s and 707s, however, cannot help the financial results; the A300 is too large for many routes and the basic choice between more Boeings and the Dassault- Breguet Mercure cannot be long held off. The airline does not consider the Mercure 100 adequate and the proposed Mercure 200 is still distant. Pierre Giraudet is 56 and a public works engineer by training. Between 1967 and 1974 he was with Aeroport de Paris (ADP), first as investments manager and from 1971 as assistant general manager. At that time ADP was engaged in the development of the Orly-West terminal and the planning of Charles de Gaulle airport, as well as establishing its reputation as a planning service and inter national consultancy. Since last year he has been general manager of RATP (Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens), the Paris urban transport authority, heading a major programme of expansion in an effort to relieve the accommodation problems in the city centre. This emphasis on public service clearly makes him a good Air France head in the view of the French Government. MARTINAIR AND TRANSAVIA TO MERGE? THE POSSIBILITY of a merger between the two Dutch charter airlines Martinair and Transavia has frequently been discussed over the past few weeks, although so far all partners concerned deny that such plans exist. Trans avia managing director Mr John Block, who has always violently opposed such a plan, retired from his post on November 1. This may ease the way to a merger. Martinair is 25 per cent owned by KLM, with shipping companies as the other main shareholders. Block of Transavia was second-in-command to Martinair founder and president Martin Schroeder until ten years ago. Like Martinair, Transavia is partly owned by a shipping concern; unlike Martinair's shareholders, one company holds a 60 per cent controlling interest. Transavia made a net loss of 6 million guilders, £1-1 million, last year; in an effort to improve this performance the majority owners appointed a new joint managing director, a professional management expert rather than an airline man. Block found the limitation of his authority unacceptable and tendered his resignation. He remains on the board of directors. Martinair has considerably diversified its activities over the past few years (see Flight for March 27, page 522). Its principal operations consist of worldwide passenger and cargo charters while subsidiaries are occupied in such diverse fields as aerial advertising, flying instruction, light aircraft assembly and overhaul and catering. Transavia concentrates on maintaining its share of the Dutch in clusive-tour market. While the Martinair fleet runs parallel with KLM's (DC-8, DC-9, DC-10 and a single F.28), Trans avia operates Boeing 737s and a single 707, together with Caravelles now being retired. Students from the airlines, manufacturers and airworthiness authorities of nine countries attended the Royal Aeronautical Society's 25th Air Transport Course last month FLIGHT International, 13 November 1975 614 OPTIMISM CONFIDENCE in the sales prospects of the VFW-Fokker 614 is running higher following the first delivery to Cimber Air and a sales tour of the USA and Canada. During a 19-day tour covering 8,500 miles the aircraft visited 11 cities and carried more than 600 airline and airport executives on up to four demonstration flights a day. Reports of close US interest in the 614 are confirmed by the company. Four European governments (Netherlands and Germany for the airframe, and Britain and France for the engine) are now involved in the close negotiations on financial and trade terms which are now an inseparable part of any aircraft sale. However, Flight understands that the 614 will find more immediate prospects rather closer to home, in an area where the development of regional air services is healthy. BMA EXPANDS ON REGIONALS THE Birmingham-London commuter service operated jointly by British Airways and British Midland Airways was inaugurated earlier this month, offering four return flights daily. The service has been started partly in anticipation of increased demand when the new national exhibition centre opens at Birmingham. BMA carried 58,000 passengers on its Gatwick-Belfast service in its first year of operations, which ended early this month. Operating profit is expected to be around £25,000-£50,000. Airliner market New price of a Boeing 707-320 is running at $14 million. Air et Cosmos reports that studies of a re-engined 707- 500 with a stretched fuselage and four ten-tonne engines are still very much alive, but it is hard to see the result costing anything less than $20 million. Mean while, National Airlines is to sell its two 747-100s to Pakistan International Airlines, which should take delivery in January. The aircraft will not go back into service when the present strike is ended . . . New Zealand National Airways Corporation has ordered two Fokker-VFW F.27-500s without freight doors. The two F.27-100s they will replace are the first two Fokker-built production aircraft, having originally been delivered to Aer Lingus in 1958 . . . The latest edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft reveals that the Lotarev D-36 powerplant in the Yakovlev Yak-42 is a tri-spool engine. BAA MARKETS CONSULTANCY SERVICES THE British Airports Authority is now selling its planning expertise more aggressively with the publication, first in English and later in other languages, of a brochure featur ing the BAA's work at the seven British airports it operates. The activities of the airport consultants were criticised last month at the annual general meeting of the Inter national Air Transport Association; consultants were des cribed as "an arm for the export of airport technology" with an interest in increasing the size and complexity of airport projects. The BAA does not, however, appear to have ambitions on the "big league" end of the consultancy business as represented by Aeroport de Paris and its equiva lent at Frankfurt. "We are concentrating on the best use of existing facilities," Flight is told, and the BAA's ex perience seems to suit it best for this kind of work. Although the object of the service is the earning of foreign currency and the promotion of British equipment, the BAA is offering planning services rather than detail design and so the scope for the recommendation of individual items of equipment may be limited. Commercial Aircraft of the World correction The correct cost-economical-cruise fuel-consumption figure for the Boeing Advanced 737-200 is 6,7601b/hr (3,066kg/hr), rather than the 9,7801b/hr quoted on page 615 of Flight for October 23. We apologise to readers for this error.
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