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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 3145.PDF
INTERNATIONAL Editorial Enquiries +44 (81) 661 3842 Editorial Fax +44 (81) 661 3840 Display Advertising +44 (81) 661 3315 Display Advertising Fax +44 (81) 661 8981 Classified Advertising +44 (81) 661 6373 Classified Advertising Fax +44 (81) 642 4431 Telex 892084 REEDBP G Subscriptions +44 (81) 649 7271 Back issues (recent copies only) +44 (81) 661 3315 Picture Library +44 (81) 661 3427 Flight Directories +44 (707) 46952 USA Newstrade Sales Enquiries 800 345 6478 LONDON Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Editor Allan Winn Editor's PA Jacqueline Worsley Deputy Editor Forbes Mutch News Editor Andrew Chuter Features Editor David Learmount Military Editor Mike Gaines Air Transport Editor Ian Goold Technology Editor Simon Elliott Databases Editor Tom Hamiij Editorial Assistant Kate Sarsticld Design Editor Mike Wells Sub-editor Annabel Goddard Layout Sub-editor Jenny Long Technical Artist Tim Hall Technical Artist David Hatchard Technical Artist John Marsden Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss Photographer (Europe) Mark Wagner +44 (81) 66' +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (81) 66 +44 (237) Fax +44 (237) +44 (272) Fax +44 (272) 3852 3843 3845 8809 3834 3838 3096 3842 3828 3348 3847 8047 8047 8054 451756 451600 358200 358290 Display Advertisement Sales Sales Manager Clive Richardson +44 (81) 661 3315 Assistant Sales Manager Nick Wilcox +44 (81) 661 3892 Senior Sales Executive Janice Lowe +44 (81) 661 3316 Advertisement production Howard Mason +44 (81) 661 3267 EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor (Brussels) Julian Moxon +32 (2) 657 9689 Fax +32 (2) 657 5260 Munich Correspondent Douglas Barrie +49 (89) 689 1041 Fax +49 (89) 689 1045 Paris Correspondent Gilbert Sedbon +33 (1) 4825 5261 Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972 (3) 9671155 Sales Director (France) Pierre Mussard +33 (1) 4277 1417 Representative (Italy) Romano Ferrario +39 (2) 58084 302 AMERICAS American Editor Graham Warwick +1 (404) 587 2927 Fax +1 (404) 594 1534 Washington Correspondent Kieran Daly +1 (703) 836 7443 Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 USA West Coast Correspondent (Los Angeles) Guy Norris +1 (714) 252 8971 Fax +1 (714) 252 8972 Photographer (USA) Craig Schrailman +1 (310) 452 4464 Fax +1 (310) 452 3515 President RBP (USA) Ray Barnes +1 (212) 867 2080 Trattic Manager JoAnn Lapp +1 (212) 867 2080 Fax +1 (212) 687 6604 Vice President US Sales John Tidy +1 (714) 756 1057 Fax +1 (714) 756 2514 Sales Director (Mid West and Canada) Gene Glendinning +1 (708) 635 9920 Fax +1 (708) 635 0602 Sales Director (East Coast) Robert Hancock +1 (703) 836 7444 Fax +1 (703) 836 7446 Business Development Director Sheena Bobbins +1 (703) 836 7444 Fax +1 (703) 836 7446 ASIA/PACIFIC Asian Editor (Singapore) John Bailey +65 226 3188 Fax +65 227 1769 Australian Correspondent Paul Phelan +61 (70) 532 791 Fax +61 (70) 532 791 Sales Director Mike Hancock (Singapore) +65 226 3188 Sales Executive Fiona Bartholomeusz +65 226 3188 Fax +65 223 6960 Regional Representative (Japan) Toshiaki Nakagawa +81 (3) 3234 2161 Fax +81 (3) 3234 1143 Publisher Les Edwards +44.(81) 661 3436 For full advertisement information see page 49. Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation COMMENT INERTIA GUIDANCE The European Commission has decided not to take action against airlines like British Airways which have broken European Community (EC) rules by increasing their fares beyond the agreed rate. The Commission's inertia is correct because it is irrelevant: in the near term, it is the market which will decide the acceptability of both absolute fares and relative fare increases. On the surface, the Commission appears to be letting the carriers decide for themselves about fares, as a part of the liberalisation proc ess leading towards the formal arrival of the Single European Market in January 1993. The choices that the airlines make, however, are not made in isolation. The only reason why fares rules and formulae needed to be set in the first place is that, until recently, there was no real competition be tween Europe's airlines on European routes. The competition is still distinctly limited, but it has been emerging gradually during the two-stage liberalisation process managed by the Commission in the 1980s and the third stage this year. The arrival of the Single Market is a final major step into liberalisation, although there will be adjustments still to be made. Liberalisation is the accurate word. The EC admits openly that deregulation will not happen. Not only is deregulation not Europe's style, but Europe has watched the USA and seen that deregulation is not perfect: it creates hubs where single airlines dominate, which limits competi tion: on routes where competition is limited, fares are high. In Europe the regulated system has failed to produce low fares, so discarding it cannot possibly be a mistake. At least the relaxation of regulation has begun to encourage some genuine competition which even the most blinkered and protected of Europe's carriers realise is neces sary. They know that if their fares are increased too much, especially in a recession, they lose more passengers. There are two fundamental differences be tween the US market and the European one. In Europe the regulated system has failed to produce low fares, so getting rid of it cannot possibly be a mistake" Europe has a credible railway network which is a genuine competitor to many domestic air services; and by far the best-value air services in the world are Europe's extensive charter opera tions which carry half of Europe's annual traffic and most of its total leisure market. The high-speed rail network is being extended throughout mainland Europe, and soon even Britain will be linked into it via the Channel Tunnel. British Airways admits that this will af fect its busiest (and most controversially expen sive) route, London to Paris. Air Inter was shocked by how much the Train a Grand Vitesse (TGV) took from its Paris-Lyon service. Lufthansa owns its own train service (Ditsseldorf-Frankfurt): its recent chairman, Heinz Ruhnau, advo cated that airport con gestion should be dealt with ultimately by allow ing only intercontinental services from the major airports, with Europe linked internally by road and rail. The point is that competition does exist and is becoming rapidly more real. In 1993, competition will be extended by virtue of cabotage, and greater freedom for the establish ment of new routes will arise through the abolition of anachronistic bilateral agreements. Most of the existing fares rules are a waste of time now, let alone in 1993, as the Commission has signalled by failing to enforce them, even if in the short-term the customer may suffer. The only worthwhile regulations in the long term are those which should protect the consumer against monopolies and the small airlines against predatory pricing. „ The Commission will be better employed in the future regulating that which should be regulated — like sorting out major-airport congestion by creating a system for re-allocating a small but significant annual proportion of slots to challenge absolute — and often abused — grandfather rights. For once, the inertia of the regulators in failing to protect the indefensible should be to the benefit of all but the inefficient state carriers. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 4 - 10 December, 1991
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