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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0888.PDF
27 March 1959 445 FRONT-OFFICE CHANGES IN B.O.A.C. "D O.A.C. have lately announced changes in senior appoint-" • ments. Following a recent illness, Capt. M. N. M. Weir has asked to be relieved of his post as chief of flight operations, whichhe has held for nearly three years. He is now to become regional representative, South-West Pacific, and will be based in Sydney;he will succeed Mr. P. D. Hood, who is being posted to Europe as B.O.A.C.'s special European representative. The post of chief offlight operations will be taken over, with immediate effect, by Capt. T. H. Farnsworth, at present deputy chief of flight opera-tions. Capt. Farnsworth, who was the first B.O.A.C. pilot to log 50 hr on Comets, served in flying-boats on the Empire routes forseven years, and was later engaged on aircraft development work in B.O.A.C. as well as serving with the Britannia Flight. Mr. H. Spear is relinquishing his post as chief personnel officerwith effect from April 30, when the personnel and medical branches of B.O.A.C. will be combined in a single departmentunder Dr. K. G. Bergin, at present chief medical officer. Dr. Bergin will be responsible to the managing director for "the wholefield of human relations" within the Corporation. A report in the News Chronicle quotes Mr. Spear as saying of his resignation:"A change has been made which is not agreeable to me." The Corporation has also announced that Mr. M. A. Snowballhas been appointed assistant general manager, South America, on the staff of the general manager, western routes. SINGAPORE DECISIONT HE implications of a reduction in K.L.M.'s traffic temporaryrights at Singapore have already been discussed in a leading article in Flight (February 13, 1959). By the terms of the decisionnow made, K.L.M. will be permitted one flight a week originating from Singapore. Although statistics may show that this is areasonable frequency in view of the volume of traffic to Amsterdam, strong resentment has been expressed by the Dutch at this finaldecision. The reasons for the Government's decision are given in thefollowing terms: — "The U.K./Netherlands air services agreement does not provide forany Netherlands route terminating at Singapore. Such a route is both more valuable to K.L.M. and more commercially threatening to B.O.A.C.than a transit route through to Indonesia, since the whole capacity of the aircraft is available for traffic to or from Singapore : K.L.M. can thuscompete directly with B.O.A.C. for Singapore/Europe traffic. Con- sequently the grant of a terminating route is in itself a concession tothe Netherlands. We feel no obligation to allow the route to be used for excessive competition with our airlines; its use must be limited tothe reasonable needs of Singapore/Netherlands traffic. "The agreed figures show that Singapore/Netherlands traffic onK.L.M.'s service is now averaging 26 or 27 passengers per week in each direction. These passengers can be comfortably accommodated on oneweekly service by a 63-seater aircraft, and the whole of any additional capacity is in direct competition with B.O.A.C. and their partners Qantas."The latest figures, as compared with those for the period before the Indonesian crisis show that (contrary to the world traffic trend) B.O.A.C.and Qantas traffic to and from Singapore has actually fallen off. As for their traffic at Djakarta, they have not increased their services throughthis point and their traffic has increased only very slightly (less than one passenger per flight), whereas other international airlines have increasedtheir services or have started up new ones and are obviously benefiting from K.L.M.'s exclusion from Indonesia. "We cannot agree that a single weekly service between the Netherlandsand Singapore is commercially impossible for K.L.M. It is clear from the traffic figures that the determining commercial factor for K.L.M. isthe traffic to and from intermediate points rather than at Singapore; and a frequent service to these would be provided by K.L.M.'s networkof Far Eastern routes irrespective of the number of services K.L.M. operate to Singapore. "In spite of the fact that K.L.M. and B.O.A.C. are strong com-petitors, we have given K.L.M. generous treatment over British traffic rights. They have very valuable rights through Prestwick for Trans-adantic traffic which are not balanced by any compensating rights for British airlines in Dutch territory. K.L.M.'s existing rights throughSingapore to Indonesia remain in the air services agreement to be taken up (instead of the temporary terminating rights) as soon asconditions permit and the airline wishes to do so." CHANNEL AIR FERRIES (Continued from page 425) his journey by car. Not a great deal of brochuremanship ispractised by the air ferries, but here there does seem to be scope for an adroit advertising campaign underlining not only the possi-bility, but also the attractiveness, of motoring abroad for a winter holiday. Cross-Channel operational regularity, even in the worstmonths of winter, has been shown to be quite good; Silver City's limits at Ferryfield are 1,000 yd visibility and 300ft cloudbase.And although winter sports traffic does not compare in volume with summer holiday traffic the winter holiday vogue does seem tobe gaining ground. It could be further encouraged. This article has set out to investigate an airline problem that isnowhere more acute than on the short sea crossings of the English Channel. In spite of a diversity of winter operations andspecial measures adopted to deal with the volume of summer traffic, travellers on business—whose travel times are inflexibleand who can give only short notice of their intention of travelling on a certain day—cannot utilize the air ferries to the extent theywould like, particularly at summer weekends. Holiday travellers must book very early in the year to be certain of securing accom-modation for themselves and their cars on the day that they wish to travel. Thus the public service that the airlines would like togive cannot always be offered. Some palliatives have been sug- gested here; but even where they can be put into effect, realizationof an even flow of traffic will not come about overnight. In particular, building up winter freight business is (in the words ofone air ferry) "a long, hard grind," and the enlightened fare policy that makes the Channel air ferries so popular has hinderedrather than helped to ease the seasonal problem. As with most successful enterprises, there is room for improvement; but to seethis in perspective it ought also to be remembered that only eleven years ago there were those who were prepared to laugh thefledgling air ferry to scorn. CONCLUSIONS • Lower fares on the air ferries have increased the demand toa point where bookings must be made considerably in advance of the flight. This has called into doubt the efficiency of the two airferries in providing a public service. • Efforts to reduce the extremely seasonal nature of the trafficby differential pricing have only been partly successful, and have been offset by the attraction of a lower overall level of fares. • Additional competition could probably not be introducedwithout economic penalties to all airlines. • Aircraft and crews might possibly be chartered from foreign carriers. • Reciprocal services with another airline or the operation ofa similar service in the Southern Hemisphere—if it can be found— offer an opportunity for establishing an opposing winter trafficpeak. • A Channel tunnel for motor traffic could reduce the airlines' summer traffic peaks; a train tunnel only would be less successful. • Considerable energy has been devoted to increasing wintertraffic; winter-holidaymakers might profitably be encouraged to travel by car. * Right, Mme. Elena Faggionato de Frondizi, wife of the Argentine President, unveils the name of Aerolineas Argentina's first Comet ' Marias" of Ezeiza Airport, B.A., on March 7. The airline's president, Cmdt. Juan Jose Guiraldes, is on the right. The second Comet -"Las Tres __ r #_ I 4 was due to arrive there on March 22, having given demonstrations at Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid and Lisbon during the preceding three days. Left, the 43-seat tourist cabin, with seats by Aircraft Service Inc. Decor, by Charles Butler, is in red, blue and gold
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