FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0422.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Druk-Air starts flying PARO Tourism to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan could treble because of the setting up of the country's national airline, Druk-Air. The carrier is now operating daily services between Paro—the site of Bhutan's only airfield—and Calcutta, using a 20-seat Dornier 228-200. Paro's airfield is at an elevation of 6,950ft, and accessible only through narrow valleys. It was built by the Indian Border Road Organisation as a replace ment for the landing field previously used for Indian helicopter operations when the Bhutan Government requested flights. Bhutan (known locally as Druk Yul, which translates as "Kingdom of the thundering dragon") is wary of a sudden influx of visitors, but is hoping to increase its current annual 1,800 tourist figure to about 5,000 because of Druk- Air's services. In the past, Bhutan's only link with India was a poor-quality road; the jouney by car took 16hr from the nearest Indian airport, which is Bagdogra, at the foot of the Himalayas in Western Bengal. The Dornier 228 covers the 375 miles (600km) between Paro and Calcutta in just under l|hr. Druk-Air—which was set up with the assistance of Indian Airlines senior staff—has another Dornier 228-200 on order to expand its operation. India's new state third-level carrier Vayudoot is also intending to begin service on the Calcutta-Paro route, but has not yet chosen its new Light Transport Aircraft (LTA). Vayudoot requires up to 45 such aircraft, and would use the LTA on services to Bhutan. According to local sources, Druk-Air had delayed its start-up to begin services at the same time as Vayudoot, but then decided to begin operations on February 11. The first flight took off to the incantations of a Tibetan lama. 638 Druk-Air introduces air services to India with its Durnier 228-200 Opposing views of deregulation WASHINGTON D.C. ~ Two organisations deeply involved with deregulation in the US air transport industry have produced conflicting views of its effects. The Civil Aviation Board— the regulatory body which the Deregulation Act was designed to make unnecessary—and the USA's biggest commercial pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association, have both issued their opinions on the success of deregulation. The CAB, in a staff report entitled "Competition and the airlines—an evaluation of deregulation", says: "Pro ductivity is improving as efficient carriers grow and inefficient carriers contract, and as the industry sheds costly practices that were nurtured during 40 years of protective regulation". On the other hand, new Alpa president Capt Henry Duffy stated recently: "We don't want to go back to total regulation of the airlines, but it's obvious that total deregu lation isn't working, and isn't going to work." Most of Alpa's membership is composed of pilots working for the large US major carriers, those most adversely affected by deregu lation. Capt Duffy announced that Alpa was forming four special committees to address indus try problems. "One of my first priorities is to get airline management, labour, and Government to sit down and talk about the very real prob lems we are facing in the industry," he said. The CAB believes that deregulation has been good for the passenger, and will remain so. According to the CAB report, "there has been a clear acceleration in the growth of lower-cost airlines under deregulation. This has reduced the average cost per revenue mile for the industry as a whole. At the same time, it has improved service convenience for many travellers". The report points out that deregulation has brought intensified competition into the US airline industry, and, at the same time, strong downward pressure on costs. The majors' share of the market has been reduced from nearly 90 per cent to under 80 per cent in only four years. The report goes on to say that deregulation is giving airlines the operating flex ibility needed to reduce the cost of air service. But it does claim that widebodied aircraft are unsuited to all but a fewc- US domestic routes; however, more than a third of the majors' total seat capacity in 1978 was accounted for by widebodies. The report's claim that deregulation is in both the traveller's and the industry's future interest clashes with the Alpa view. Capt Duffy says: "If cut-throat competition forces an airline to price it seats 10 or 20 per cent below costs, you don't have to be an economist to see where that road leads. If we destroy an air transport system that has taken 50 years to build, then everyone loses—the consumer, the airlines, and their employees. At the very least, we need to establish some mechanism that would allow all carriers to recover all costs when setting ticket prices." Of the four committees which Alpa is setting up as a result of deregulation, one will work on fare and tariff stabil isation, and the second (called the Collective Bargaining Committee) will study how deregulation has changed labour negotiations. The third, the Seniority List Committee, will investigate the idea of a US national list for Alpa pilots. The fourth, the Organisational Structure Study Committee, will examine the effects of deregulation on Alpa's inter nal structure and member representation. The CAB report does recog nise that deregulation has had an adverse effect in one major sector of the industry: it has made business more difficult for airliner manufacturers. "The CAB no longer protects high-cost carriers from effi cient competition, or props up prices in the face of over capacity. Consequently, carri ers as well as their lenders are becoming increasingly cautious about purchasing new aircraft," the report states. It recognises that the indus try is still in a state of transi tion in adjusting to full dereg ulation, and that this has been made more difficult by the recession and the dramatic increase of fuel prices in 1979 and 1980. Alpa labels the result of these combined factors "near-chaotic". FLIGHT International, 12 March 1983
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
