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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0277.PDF
FLIGHT International. 25 February 1978 487 Eastern A300s notch up the hours THE four Airbus Industrie A300B4s oil trial with Eastern Airlines are working towards lOhr/day utilisation. The airline is being reticent about re leasing "unaudited" reliability figures in view of the fact that a board decision on the type is on the cards within a month, but the aircraft is said to have performed "extremely well". Introduction of the A300s does not seem to have worsened fleet reliability and may even have improved the record. Heavy snow in the northern USA has revealed one slight snag: sand ingestion by the air-conditioning heat- exchangers during operations from 978 tion of the fares because standby is likely to be more attractive in the off season (when passengers feel that there are plenty of seats available), while budget fares will have more appeal in peak periods. He also admits that "we don't know yet where these people are going from: whether they are new travellers or have been diverted from other fares." Asked about the effect of Concorde competition, Mr Hall comments: "We don't think it is any worse than we expected and our first-class loads are holding up well. Our first-class New York - London seats had been over booked and Concorde could fill up with people who couldn't get first- class seats on Pan Am 100. So we cannot really gauge it until Concorde service goes daily." Another North Atlantic problem arises from the inauguration of ser vices from other gateways: Braniff from Dallas/Fort Worth, Delta from Atlanta, and more National services from Miami. Pan Am admits that its forecast of a slight increase in market share on the North Atlantic was pre pared before those route decisions, and now "we will be fighting hard to hold our own." About 15 per cent of all passengers on the North Atlantic "and about 5 per cent of Pan Am's passengers out of New York" come from the parts of the US served by the new gateways. Hall predicts that this section will grow faster than the rest of the market because of the higher rate of economic expansion in that part of the country and because of the increased travel created by the non-stop service. As a result, he esti mates, "we will be looking at a reduc tion of 2 to 3 per cent in our traffic out of New York." Asked about Pan Am's decision on its membership of lata, Mr Magary says: "We will have to wait to see how they react to law fares before we decide whether we are better off in lata or outside of it." sanded runways. Airbus Industrie is designing an intake deflector to cure the problem. So far the four aircraft have suffered only one true mechanical delay since operations started on December 13. Eastern and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are still discussing the suitability of the A300 for New York LaGuardia. The Port Authority doubts whether some of the piers on which LaGuardia's taxiways are built can take the A300 under carriage loadings. The most likely solution at the moment is that the A300s will be allowed to use the stronger parts of the taxiways. To this Noise amendment fails to become law in Commons AN ATTEMPT to change British law so that airlines and airport authorities would be legally liable for aircraft noise failed last week. Hugh Jenkins, the Labour MP for Putney, introduced the change in the law as an amend ment to the British Civil Aviation Bill, which finished detailed considera tion in the Commons last week. The amendment was opposed by the Government and defeated. All responsibility for aircraft noise in the UK now rests with the Depart ment of Trade, which tells the British Airports Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority how to deal with the problem. Trade Under-Secretary Mr Stanley Clinton Davis told MPs that the Jenkins amendment was impracticable, would create confusion and could disrupt civil aviation. THBEE new routes between Britain and Scandinavia have been approved by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Denmark and will be inaugurated this year. The approval of the British- flag services indicates an improvement in relations between the UK and the Scandinavians, and is a first conces sion in the talks on a new UK-Scandi navian bilateral agreement. British Caledonian will start an Edinburgh-Newcastle-Copenhagen ser vice with One-Eleven 500s on March 20. Dan-Air will introduce One-Elevens on London-Bergen on April 1, and Air Anglia will link Edinburgh with Stavanger with F.27s from a date yet to be announced. Air Anglia may use its F.28s on the route when the first end the Port Authority will have to add new taxi way markings and A300 pilots will have to taxi within closer tolerances than the crews of other types. Earlier this month Eastern con ducted day and night taxi tests at Miami to demonstrate that the limits can be met. Data from the tests are now with the Authority. The impact of the A300 on traffic flow and market share is hard to assess because the main A300 routes are those on which this winter's peak season has seen the introduction of new low fares. Load factors have been generally high, running from 55 per cent on the thinner sectors. Disputes cut traffic growth at BAA airports PASSENGER traffic at airports con trolled by the British Airports Authority increased only three per cent last year, mainly because of the British Airways engineering dispute, the temporary withdrawal of part of the Trident fleet and the air traffic control assistants' strike. Traffic at Heathrow, which accounts for more than twice as much pas senger traffic as the rest of the BAA airports put together, was most seriously affected by the cutbacks in British Airways services and the con gestion which followed the ATC dispute, and grew only 0-6 per cent between 1976 and 1977. Gatwick and Stansted both gained traffic as charter services were routed away from con gested Heathrow, growing 15-2 per cent and 11-9 per cent respectively. aircraft is delivered in the autumn. Both the B.CAL and Dan-Air routes were served by British airlines before the 1973 fuel price rises, which caused B.CAL to suspend its Edinburgh- Copenhagen service and British Air ways to abandon London-Bergen. The Scandinavian governments have still not approved the proposed British Midland Airways service between Birmingham and Copenhagen, the cause of the current dispute. SAS rights suspended in retaliation are still in abeyance while a new air agreement is negotiated. The new ser vices approved by the Scandinavian governments are only valid until the present bilateral expires at the end of this year. First concessions in UK-Scandinavia dispute
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