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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 3050.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Hunting new Hunting Cargo Airlines breaks its ties with the past. MAX KINGSLEY-JONES/COVENTRY ON 17 OCTOBER, Hunting Cargo Air lines retired its remaining Vickers "VC9" Merchantman (Vanguard) freighter when the last operational example was flown to the Brooklands Museum in Surrey, south-west of London, for preservation. This marked the end of a 20-year association with me four-engined turboprop for die EastMidlands- based cargo carrier, which has now established itself as a major operator in Europe of jet-pow ered freight aircraft. Hunting began its fleet-renewal programme in 1988, having operated the Merchantman sincethemid-1970s,withthe acquisition of the smaller Lockheed Electra. The US-built four- engined contemporary of the Merchantman appealed as it was in more plentiful supply than the Vickers aircraft, and maintenance is cheap er. Despite these good points, the Electra's pay- load capability, at around 15t, is lower than the 19t of the Merchantman. FLEET EXPANSION By 1992, Hunting's fleet consisted of four Merchantmen and four Electras. The Mer chantman fleet was gradually wound down, and in 1995 the carrier moved to jet-powered air craft, with the acquisition of a Boeing 727-200 freighter. It now operates ten Stage 3-hushkit- ted examples, including four on behalf of TNT. Hunting's fleet also includes a leased Lockheed Martin Hercules, which is tasked with oil-spill contracts, but is also available for general- freight charters. The airline's main business is the carriage of express packages. Around 60% of Hunting's fly ing is for DHL, which has its main European hub in Brussels, Belgium, and sub-hubs at Bergamo, Italy; Cologne, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; East Midlands Airport; Nuremberg, Germany; and Vittoria, Italy. Much of the DHL work is undertaken on direct charters, under a contract to supply air craft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI). The carrier also operates some sched uled cargo flights. In 1994, the Aviation division of Hunting, which also includes the airline-interiors busi ness, reported an operating profit of £2.3 mil lion ($3.8 million), which represented a 30% Hunting moved into the jet age in 1994 improvement over 1994 (£1.8 million). The company as a whole made a profit of £3 8.1 mil lion on a turnover of £1.1 billion. Although much loved by the crews, the Mer chantman had to be phased out on cost grounds, explains Hunting Cargo's commercial manager Steve Guynan. "It was an excellent aircraft, but its retirement was simply a question of econom ics. Maintenance costs were horrendous — the [Rolls-Royce Tyne] engines, which were not desperately reliable, were costing around £250,000 ($410,400) per overhaul, while the five-year airframe checks were also very expen sive. We also faced a small and diminishing spares and skill pool on the type," he says. The timing of the Merchantman's phase-out worked perfectly. "We were down to our last four engines," says Guynan. "The aircraft's phase-out schedule was set for either the end of September, when the next major check was due, or when the next engine failure occurred." The Brooklands Museum, which was to be the recipient of the last Merchantman when it was finally withdrawn, was obviously concerned that it might miss the opportunity to take deliv ery of the aircraft if it experienced a premature retirement because of an engine failure. "We knew that a three-engined landing on the muse um's 500m (1,650ft) runway was out of the ques tion," says the Museum, "so earlier this year we persuaded Hunting to pull an engine with one cycle remaining, as a redundancy plan. In the event it was not needed." The 19t-payload capability of the Mer- 38 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 November 1996
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