MORE TRAFFIC BY AIR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21966, 15 December 1936, Page 12

MORE TRAFFIC BY AIR

♦ PROGRESS OF IMPERIAL AIRWAYS review of operations (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, November 21. Imperial Airways, Ltd., made a profit of £140,705 last year, and a substantial increase was shown over the previous year in the volume of traffic carried. At the ordinary general meeting this week it was agreed that a dividend of 6 per cent., plus a bonus of 2 per cent., both less tax, should bo paid. . The report of the chairman (Sir Eric Geddes) said that the majority of the increase in traffic was caused by the rapid growth in Empire air mails, which had risen 78 per cent, in the year. This was due in part io the doubling of the frequency of services and in part to the substantial reductions in air-mail rates by the Post Office. The total traffic carried on all services was more than double that carried in 1932-33. On the Empire routes as a whole, the company flew more than 90 per cent, more miles than the minimum necessary to earn the subsidy. On the same services they carried 170 tons of mail more than in the previous year, and passenger traffic increased by more than 20 per cent. The average distance flown a passenger on the Empire services was 2025 miles. England-India Service The period under review was the first complete year in which the Eng-land-India service v/as operated at a frequency of twice weekly throughout. The results of this development had been very satisfactory. There had been a substantial saving in cost per ton-mile, and increased revenue. Cycles per cent, of the capacity operated over the whole line had been sold. With a similar frequency increase m the Singapore-Brisbane section by the associated company, Qantas Empire Airways, a twice-weekly service between England and Australia had also been completed, and this had had a beneficial effect upon the line a& a whole. , „ , , , It lincl also boon the first complete year in which the line between England and Johannesburg had been operated throughout on a twiccwccklv frequency, and, as with mo India "line, the results had exceeded expectation. They sold more than /a per cent, of the capacity operated on this line. This increase in frequency over the whole of the Empire lines was carried out without any increase in Government subsidy, but synchronised In fact, with a decrease in subsidy, which scaled down each year. Under the new Empire mail scheme the whole of the Africa route would be operated by flying-boats. Regular services between Khartoum and Kano in Nigeria had been commenced, and a service connecting Hong Kong with the main England-Australia line A Penang had been inaugurated. Progress of the Company During the year the company and its subsidiary and associated companies flew more than 6,500,000 miles, and during the current year that figure would probably reach 8,000.000 miles, or an average of more than 20,000 miles a day. The company and its subsidiaries— excluding associated companies—carried more than 08,000 passengers and nearly 1250 tons of mail, freight and excess baggage. In f924-25 the company had 1760 miles of airway in operation; to-day it had mors than 27,000 miles. The company had always been pioneers in the use of large multiengined aircraft, and the new Empire flying-boats, called the Canopus or C class, and the corresponding land aeroplane type, called the Ensign or E class, now under construction, had, like the Hannibal and Scipio classes, been conceived in their main features within the company. From the company’s specification, aircraft were now being produced which, he was convinced, were ahead of anything in their class in the world, and which were already making history for British civil aviation.

Last year he spoke of new aircraft that they had ordered for the extended Empire services. They had. in fact, ordered 28 of the Empire-type flying-boats and 12 land aircraft, some of which, however, would be used on European services. These represented a capital outlay of approximately £2,000.000. The performance of the new flying-boats exceeded expectations. The full speed trial recorded 199 i miles an hour, which gave them the fastest flying-boats in the world. The Ensign class land aeroplanes were similar in size and performance characteristics to the flying-boats. New Empire Mail Scheme Last year, said Sir Eric, he stated that the principal features of a longterm agreement had been agreed with the Government. This agreement had for its foundation the execution of the Government’s policy to carry the whole of the letter mail within the Empire by air. The ipsissima verba of the agreement had not yet been settled, but the Government and the company were both proceeding with the work that had to be done to put the scheme into effect. It had been stated in Parliament that it was aimed to achieve a 2J day schedule to India and to East Africa, and a 41 day to South Africa and to Singapore, and a 6-7 day schedule to Australia. When the new scheme was in full operation on the eastern route there would be five services weekly to India, three to Malaya, and two to Australia, and on the southern route three services weekly to Central Africa and two services weekly to Durban. The first important stage would be to apply the scheme to the whole of the line from England to South Africa. More than two years had now slipped by since the Empire air mail scheme was first submitted to the Government of Australia. He was not able to say definitely that the difficulties had been overcome, but he had some reason to hope that they would be overcome.