FLIGHT International, 27 March 1975 519

AIR TRANSPORT BRITISH AIRWAYS CUTS BACK OPERATIONS . . . BRITISH AIRWAYS plans to cut back operations because a fall in passenger and cargo traffic on routes in Europe and the United Kingdom is forecast for next year. Compared with 1973-74, it is expected that passenger traffic on these routes will fall by eight per cent or one million passengers and the airline expects to carry only half the freight, that is 80,000 tons less. According to Mr Henry Marking, British Airways managing director, the airline's all-cargo aircraft on short-range routes have long been unprofitable. The level of loss is now unsupportable and there is to be a cut­back in European all-cargo operations. Added to cuts in passenger flights, the effect will be to reduce the flying hours of the fleet in 1975-76 by ten per cent compared with 1974-75 and by 18 per cent compared with the total for 1973-74.

The current financial year ends on March 31 and Mr Marking says that British Airways will end the year with "a substantial financial loss." There has been a great dis­parity in the buoyancy of traffic, both passenger and cargo, on the long-haul services compared with that on short-haul services. Business on the long-haul routes held up "reason­ably well," but on some shoirt-haul routes between Europe and the United Kingdom and on UK domestic routes there was a sharp drop below the level of the previous year. The managing director says this was not the result of losing traffic to competitors. The net result in the 1974-75 year has been that the healthy financial result from the longer routes is more than consumed by losses incurred in short-haul operations.

. . . A N D REDUCES STAFF NUMBERS A REDUCTION of 1,300 out of a UK workforce of 49,000 was announced by British Airways last week. The cuts will affect all divisions in all regions and are prompted by a loss of over £20 million expected to be announced next week. The airline intends to achieve the cuts by a com­bination of early retirements and transfers.

British Airways will reduce its total number of pilots by 400, about ten per cent. To avoid wastage of trained pilots and to maintain the requirement for the Hamble training college 400 pilots will be "grounded"—redeployed or placed on leave—for a maximum of three years. By that time some 650 pilots will have retired and the grounded crews—together with 250 Hamble graduates—will rejoin the airline. • The result predicted for British Airways during the 1974-75 financial year contrasts with those of the US airline industry. In the 1974 calendar year the 11 US trunks and the eight locals made record profits of $247 million and $44-9 million respectively. It was the international long-haul carriers, TWA and Pan Am, which made record losses. However, calendar 1975 has got off to a bad start for most of the US airlines with the majority of the trunks and locals recording lower traffic during the last three months than in the corresponding part of 1974. TWA and Pan Am are hoping that their exchange of routes, the swapping of routes with other carriers and cutbacks in staff and capacity will help to improve their financial position in 1975 despite any softness in traffic.

ALPA SUES CAB ON HAZARDOUS CARGOES THE US Air Line Pilot's Association has sued the Civil Aeronautics Board for rejecting nine US airlines' requests to embargo hazardous cargo on passenger flights. The airline embargoes were in co-operation with Alpa's own ban, which came into effect on February 1.

The CAB claims that the airlines' grounds for refusing to carry certain cairgoas are inadequate and detrimental

to the standard of service; the board considers that the National Transportation Safety Board's regulations are an adequate safeguard. Alpa, in the aftermath of the report on the 707 accident at Boston (see Flight for March 13, page 394), wants a temporary ban on dangerous cargoes until the more effective regulations recommended by the NTSB can be finalised. The CAB, claims Alapa's' suit, is not fulfilling its duty to ensure safe travel.

MORE OFFERS TO JAPANESE INDUSTRY THE BRITISH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION is proposing a reduced take-off and landing variant of the One-Eleven 700 to the Japanese Government as the basis for a co-production programme. Japanese firms would develop an improved, high-lift wing at a cost around £50 million and a Japanese production line could be set up (see Airliner Market, Flight for February 27 and March 6). The 120/134-seat aircraft could use 4,000ft runways.

De Havilland Canada is looking for Japanese partici­pation in development of a 60/70-seat, stretched "Dash 7L", sacrificing some Stol capability for operating econ­omics while retaining "good-neighbour" characteristics. DHC also wants equipment suppliers for the current air­craft and is offering work on a Dash 7QC quick-change passenger/freighter and a Dash 7R rescue aircraft.

LUFTHANSA OPPOSES DISCOUNT FARES THERE ARE too many low-cost, discounted-economy promo­tional fares on scheduled flights On the North Atlantic and in Europe, and they are too low; the full economy fare has risen too fast and the business market cannot bear the brunt of fare increases indefinitely. This is the view of Mr Reinhard Bock, Lufthansa general manager for pas­senger traffic and sales.

The gap between the rising normal fare and the pro­motional fares must be narrowed, Mr Bock said in London last week. The advance-purchase excursion (Apex) fare on the North Atlantic is already proving costly and diffi­cult to administer: "Our main principle," says Mr Bock, "is to cover the costs by the revenue," and it was on these grounds that Lufthansa resisted Apex at the International Air Transport Association's conferences. Lufthansa even­tually acquiesced in Apex. "We were in isolation," explains Mr Bock, "and we can't afford an open-rate situation." The airline is not happy, however, with Iata's unanimity rule under which an airline with three transatlantic flights a week wields a veto over any agreement. Lufthansa has not yet decided whether to attempt to resist Apex when the lata agreement comes up for renewal, but it is not sure whether it can afford to continue with the fare.

"We feel," says Mr Bock, "that the different market segments should be covered by appropriate fares, but some low-price markets demand charters and do not allow us to carry our costs; therefore we do not want a high num­ber of very low promotional fares."

Lufthansa considers that there should be only four fares on scheduled flights: first-class, economy, open excursion (with Iength-of-stay limitations only) and ITX inclusive-tour-basing fare). The open excursion fare should be the scheduled airlines' answer to advance-booking charters (ABCs), selling simplicity and flexibility. Apex, as well as diverting traffic from ABCs, will dilute the scheduled revenue from the current open 22/45-day excursion, which, says Mr Bock, Lufthansa "swears on." A great deal of tourist and visiting-friends-and-relations traffic from Germany to the USA will be diverted from open excur­sion to Apex.

There should be a charter-price floor to protect the open excursion fare from excessive undercutting in the