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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0020.PDF
18 RIGHT International, 3 January 1981 R-'M ***v *»*»» Operating efficiency, typified by these two British One-Eleven airlines, should be independent of ownership performance here is impressive. This measure is one indication of good marketing—flying the right ser vices to the right places at the right times, with a smile. Utilisation: Again, the usual disparity between the Europeans and the Ameri cans does not appear in this criterion of efficiency, which tends to favour the longhaulers. Indeed, the typical European charter airlines—Britannia being a notable example with around 4,000hr a year per 737—probably con cedes nothing to any world airline in this respect, Outstanding "utilisers" among the Europeans are Lufthansa and Alitalia; both outfly Delta, who again leads the American pack with the expected ex ception of Pan American (exclusively long-haul international until its mer ger with National). The two British carriers are no slouches here, British Airways and British Caledonian better ing Northwest and United. Cost level: Unit production cost, say US cents per capacity tonne-km, is also often quoted as a measure of transport-industry efficiency. Common sense suggests that high-productivity airlines are low-cost airlines. But "cost per ton-mile" has to be qualified as much as do other efficiency criteria. An airline can skimp on maintenance, training and safety activities; it can cut staff and facilities to a degree affecting efficiency and even morale and safety. And it is easier for an operator of 747s on long sectors to show lower cost per ton-mile than an operator of 748s on short hops. Such extremes do not characterise our league members, so cost level is a valid comparator. The disparity between the European and American airlines is strongly marked. Shown in black are the pro portions spent on maintenance and en gineering, activities central to operat ing efficiency and safety. Some airlines do more than others by way of con tract maintenance, though this is usually a way of using excess man power and capacity. Northwest and Delta come top (or rather bottom) in total cost-level and in maintenance cost-level. The best European, BCal, comes close to the formidable Delta. The Scottish air line's recent inauguration of a heavy- engine maintenance factory could, de pending on how the accounting is done, change BCal's place in this league; in the longer term is should increase that other but more fickle efficiency measure, profit. Conclusions: American airlines are more efficient than European airlines, markedly so by most measures. Delta emerges as the efficiency-league leader, the. undoubted gold-medallist. The airlines appearing most often in our charts as "below average" are the Europeans. The most consistently below-average is British Airways. BCal is more efficient than BA, and compares well with the best Euro peans, though not often with the Americans. JAL is more efficient than the Euro peans, appearing below average only in cost-level and departures per air craft. American airlines appear be low average very rarely—Pan Ameri can, for example, in departures per aircraft. British Airways is consistently be low average in the world airline effi ciency charts. The single most signifi cant reason is overmanning. This is partly the inheritance of the BOAC- BEA merger, but mostly it is the effect of heavy unionisation. Other British airlines, BCal in cluded, fly without union drag, and the most efficient airline to emerge from our study—America's Delta—is not unionised. Though Delta has 36,000 staff, and is not a small company, management has succeeded in achiev ing an industrial spirit in which pilots will help with the baggage-handling. Some American airlines are union ised—United for example; but our charts may help to convince some of the more blinkered British Airways union officials of the gross extent to which overmanning is a problem. On the plus side for BA is its un disputed authority in the professional world in flight operations, engineering, technical innovation and safety, British Airways' people make massive contributions to the international air line industry—more than does Delta, well known in the trade for keeping its technical excellence to itself. British Airways shares and contributes its technical excellence — another aspect of efficiency which cannot be defined. S3 "Delta emerges as the efficiency league-leader, the undoubted gold-medalist" ^lilfii
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