FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0010.PDF
i 0 FLIGHT International, 4 January 1962 Airline Profile / NUMBER ONE IN A NEW "FLIGHT" SERIES Channel Air Bridge BACKGROUND TO THE OPENING OF CAR FERRY ERA 2 By the Air Transport Editor ACCORDING to most accepted theories of air transport economics, the Channel Air Bridge subsidiary of British * United Airways ought not really to be still in business. The air transport economists will say that an airline might just scrape through 12 months on what is virtually three or four months' holiday business; but surely not on three routes as short-haul as 73, 94 and 165 statute miles, and at revenue rates related more to boat fares than to international air fares. And not with aircraft having such a high, and increasingly high, operating cost as Bristol Freighters. There must have been many occasions since the Air Bridge started in September 1954 when the airline wondered whether the theorists might be right. In the doldrum months of the early heart- Above: Carvair in dose-up. Below: The Air Bridge's nine sturdy Bristols, utilized at a rate of l,650hr each, will be superseded as vehicle-ferries by 1965 break years there were days when there was not a single car, passenger or parcel wanting to be carried. Yet today the Air Bridge is not only in good shape, making a profit, and earning revenues probably now as high as those of Silver City; it is about to take off on a new venture—the inauguration of what we have called Car Ferry Era 2. Although it is now a part of Britain's biggest independent, Channel Air Bridge is still the small airline it has always been, and it is required to make its own financial way in the world. Doubtless there are now some benefits deriving from its association with British United; but provided it makes money, which it now does, it has complete autonomy. How then has this small company successfully defied and disproved the theorists? One reason could be that, unlike so many other small operators whose demise we have witnessed in the past year, the Air Bridge has resisted the temptation to expand too quickly. The Air Bridge's history has been one of learning to walk slowly but surely, carefully consolidating each of three progressive steps. First, Southend- Calais in September 1954; then Southend-Ostend in October 1955; and Southend-Rotterdam in October 1956. Only now, more than five years later, is the company prepared to do what it has always wanted to do—to take longer strides into the Continent. These strides, due to be taken in April with ATL-98 Carvair services to Basel, Geneva and Strasbourg, will bring a much better balance to the airline's business, which at present is concentrated solely on the three routes to Calais, Ostend and Rotterdam. On sectors as short as these, overheads like landing fees and station charges gobble up a high proportion of the revenues. Turnround time at Calais, for example, can be almost as long as the flight from Southend; and any increases in crew costs (at present about £6 per hour on the Bristol) arising from such things as tougher pilots' duty-hour limitations or salary increases, tend to hit the short- haulers the hardest. There are many other examples of the intrinsically difficult economics of short-haulage, especially when the difficulties are
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
