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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 2700.PDF
AIR TRANSPOR'i UK bans Libya flights LONDON Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA) flights into the UK are to be stopped from the end of Octo ber, the UK Department of Transport (DoT) has announced. This follows the sentencing to 25 years imprisonment of an Arab terrorist who claimed he received four hand grenades from a man in LAA uniform at London Heathrow. (Flight, October 4, page 3). Secretary of State for Transport John Moore said that the involvement of LAA in support of terrorist activity makes it "inappropriate in the Government's view for air services between the two countries to continue". The Government has informed the Libyan authorities of the action through the Saudi Arabian Embassy which looks after Libyan interests in the UK. No one was available at the Embassy to comment on the matter. The UK Government has decided to terminate the administrative application of the UK/Libya Air Services agreement of December 20, 1972, from October 31. The agreement had never been ratified and thus, when the temporary operating permits issued by the DoT to LAA expire at the end of the month, LAA flights will be terminated. In the meantime, Moore says that "further security measures will be applied to LAA flights to Heathrow". LAA presently operates a twice-weekly service into the country. BA competes with Aerof lot charters LENINGRAD About 40,000 British charter passengers saw the treasures of Leningrad's fabulous Hermitage Museum last year, all but 2,000 flown by Aeroflot Il-62s. Half went from Gatwick and a quarter from Heathrow, the rest—and all Aeroflot—from Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. But British Airways expects good charter loads on its new weekly 737 scheduled service from Heathrow to Leningrad. "The business is undoubtedly there," the air line's USSR manager John Burley tells J. M. Ramsden. Aeroflot already operates a Heathrow-Leningrad sched uled service with Il-62s. A previous British Airways service to Leningrad was suspended for lack of traffic in 1974. The airline's London- Moscow service, now a daily 737, has been operating successfully since 1959. With Aeroflot's six per week Il-62s, London-Moscow accounts for most UK-USSR passenger traffic, which last year reached a record 155,000 scheduled and charter (these are all UK CAA figures). British Airways and its Airtours subsidiary have left the whole-charter market to Aeroflot and to Britannia (the latter's share is probably around 3 per cent). On the face of it, British charter marketing seems to have lost out to Soviet commercial enterprise. Nearly all the passengers are British, yet three-quarters are carried by Aeroflot. Nobody in British Airways claims to be leader in the USSR market. The other side of the picture is low revenue yield. Business traffic rates are high, but charter rates appear to be determined more by Aeroflot's hard currency needs than by the profits which entice Western airlines. All-inclusive one-week pack age tours of Leningrad and Moscow for around £300 do not leave large fortunes avail able for an airline charter on technically high-cost 3,000- mile roundtrips. Nor does the official rouble-pound exchange rate of 1:1—the Moscow street rate is 4:1. And Aeroflot, backed by Intourist UK's effective British sales team, has unrestricted facili ties in the United Kingdom, where British tour operators deal directly with Aeroflot. British Airways is not allowed to sell directly in the USSR. Despite this commercial inequality, which would not be tolerated in any other UK Aeroflot sometimes uses Il-86s instead of Il-62s for the booming UK-USSR tourist market, which has now attracted British Airways back to Leningrad bilateral air agreement, BA stays profitable, concen trating on scheduled services. It has increased its scheduled market share over the past four years from about 15 per cent to nearly 20 per cent— about 30,000 passengers a year currently, mostly British tourists. The small business content, paying a Club return fare of over £700, is drawn mainly from the 5,000-strong British diplomatic and commercial community in the USSR. The imbalance is compen sated by a direct pooling agreement, which probably pays BA about £? million a year. Charter flights are outside the pooling agree ment. BA will continue to carry all its passengers—and, it hopes, more of Aeroflot's charter traffic—on scheduled services. BA operates 114-seat 737-200s against Aeroflot's 162-seat Il-62s. The British airline has been substituting 183-seat 757s, and Aeroflot has been slotting in 286-seat Il-86s, as traffic has demanded, for example when London and Moscow business traffic peaks around week ends. Aeroflot and British Airways relations have always been warm despite problems. Aeroflot is well aware of the bilateral imbalances, and would like to see British Airways operating Moscow- Tokyo via Siberia. B A has the right to do this, but the geographical advantages of the one-stop Moscow route are rapidly being eroded by the increasing range capabili ties of the 747, soon to be flying London-Hong Kong nonstop. Aeroflot handles British Airways' passengers in Moscow and Leningrad. Other Western airline daily frequenters of Moscow are Air France, Austrian, Finnair, Lufthansa, and SAS. Pan American flies in four times a week, via Frankfurt; two flights terminate in Leningrad. BA's new Leningrad service may justify a second weekly flight by the end of this winter. The USSR tourist market is mainly cultural, far from the Mediterranean buckets and spades and beercans, and it is booming. The palaces and treasures of the Tsars could be starting a new air tourist revolution. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 11 October 1986
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