Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

AIRLINE POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

1961; Wiley; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1467-8500.1961.tb00012.x

1467-8500

David Corbett,

Australian Journal of Public AdministrationVolume 20, Issue 3 p. 193-214 AIRLINE POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION David Corbett, David Corbett Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Australian National University . There are six airlines operating intrastate scheduled services in Australia. Three are subsidiaries of Ansett- A. N. A.: Queensland Airlines, Airlines of New South Wales, Airlines of South Australia. Three are independent: East-West Airlines (N.S.W.), Connellan (N.T.), MacRobertson-Miller (W.A.).Search for more papers by this author David Corbett, David Corbett Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Australian National University . There are six airlines operating intrastate scheduled services in Australia. Three are subsidiaries of Ansett- A. N. A.: Queensland Airlines, Airlines of New South Wales, Airlines of South Australia. Three are independent: East-West Airlines (N.S.W.), Connellan (N.T.), MacRobertson-Miller (W.A.).Search for more papers by this author First published: September 1961 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.1961.tb00012.x . The three principal independents are British United Airways (founded by merger of Hunting Clan and Airwork, 1960), Cunard-Eagle Airways (1960), and Skyways. There are several other small air carriers. . There are five operating scheduled services: Maritime Central Airlines, Quebec-ah, Transair (Winnipeg), Pacific Western Airlines and Nordair. Further examples of such decisions include (1) the remission of half of A.N.A.‘s unpaid air navigatiun charges, 1948–1952, and (2) the government's insistence in 1958 that both airlines re-equip with Lockheed Electras instead of pure jet Caravelles, which T.A.A. was ready to adopt. There were several reasons for the latter decision, but it suited Ansett-A.N.A. better than it suited T.A.A. T.A.A. had a higher proportion of long-haul business than Ansett-A.N.A., and could have made more effective use of pure jets than Ansett-A.N.A. It should have been possible to allow the two airlines to make independent decisions on type of equipment, while still imposing an upper limit on the seat-mile capacities of their respective fleets. A.N.A. acquired a one-third interest in Cathay Pacific Airlines in 1948. Ansett-A.N.A. now holds 14 per cent. of the shares in Cathay Pacific, which was reorganized in 1959. John Longhurst, Nationalization in Practice, London, Temple Press Limited (1950), 109. U.K. Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 618. 2 Mar., 1960. 1226 and ff. British European Airways Corporation, Report and Accounts for the Year ended 31stMarch, 1959, London, H.M.S.O. (1959), 27. U.K. Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 618, 2 Mar., 1960, 1232. Canada, House of Commons Debates, 1943, 1777. J. W. Pickersgill, The Mackenzie King Record, Vol. I, 1939–1944. Toronto, University of Toronto Press (1960), 646. Hon. George Hees to Stephen F. Wheatcroft, 4 Feb., 1958, as cited in S. F. Wheatcroft, Airline Competition in Canada, Ottawa, Department of Transport (1958). The first concession was the cancellation of the 1944 “divestment order” under which the C.P.R. and C.N.R. (Canadian National Railways) would both have been required to divest themselves of their airline holdings. T.C.A. is technically a subsidiary of C.N.R. To T.C.A. and C.N.R., divestment would have meant nothing but a bookkeeping change and a statutory amendment, while to the C.P.R. and C.P.A.L. it would have meant finding a buyer for airline assets with little hope of profit. After strenuous protests from the C.P.R. and the Conservative Opposition, the Government cancelled the divestment order in 1946. Another centre of “political” loyalty to the public-enterprise airline is the public service. Though Ansett-A.N.A. and T.A.A. have had equal competitive rights in and out of Canberra for several years, Ansett-A.N.A. is unable to attract more than 30 per cent of the traffic. This probably does not result from bias in official departmental travel-bookings, but from the preference of individual public servants who, when left to choose for themselves, generally fly T.A.A. This T.A.A. advantage is more than offset by Ansett- A.N.A.‘s greater share of the air freight traffic from loyal private enterprise business sources. There is a corresponding danger that each airline, knowing it can count on half the market, will not care what the customer thinks of it. To prevent this, the Australian scheme of airline market-sharing allows each airline to compete and hold a slightly greater share of the market than its rival. Capacity is allocated to each airline on the basis of 50% sharing at a 68% load factor, and is fixed for a specified future period, usually three to six months. If, during this period, the traffic share should markedly favour one operator against the other then the operator obtaining the greater share is obliged to carry the traffic at a progressively increasing load factor. W. A. Robson, Nationalized Industry and Public Ownership, London, Allen and Unwin (1960), 135–136. H. Gaitskell, “Socialization and Nationalization”, Fabian Tract No. 300, London, Fabian Society (1956). C. A. R. Crosland, The Future of Socialism, London, Jonathan Cape (1956). Socialist Union, Twentieth Century Socialism, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books (1956). Mark Abrams and Richard Rose, Must Labour Lose?, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books (1960). Commonwealth Acts 1957, No. 86, “Civil Aviation Agreement Act”. In the Goya Henry cases the High Court ruled that the Commonwealth can regulate air navigation insofar as it is part of interstate trade and commerce, and insofar as such regulation is necessary to implement the exact terms of an international convention, but that the Commonwealth has no general power to regulate air navigation. It therefore lacks power to regulate those aspects of intrastate air navigation that fall outside the scope of international air safety conventions. See The King v. Burgess, ex parte Henry (1936) 55 C.L.R. 608, and King v. Poole, ex parte Henry (1939) 61 C.L.R. 634. In the Airlines case the High. Court held that section 92 of the Australian Constitution protects the right of private operators to enter into interstate air navigation, this being a branch of interstate trade, which, under section 92, must be “absolutely free.” See Australian National Airways Pty. Ltd. v. The Commonwealth and others (1945) 71 C.L.R. 29. See discussion in H. W. Poulton, “Legal and Policy Aspects of Air Transport in Australia,”Journal of Air Law wad Commerce, Vol. 26 (Winter, 1959). 13–35. U.K., House of Commons paper 213, Report of the Select Committee on Nationalized Industries: The Air Corporations, London, H.M.S.O. (1959). xxiv. Ibid., xii and xvi. “Britain's New Board: Plain Man's Guide to the Air Transport Licensing Board,”Flight, Vol. 79, 13 April, 1961, 414–416. W. A. Robson, Nationalized Industry and Public Ownership, London, George Allen and Unwin (1960), 158, 160, 162. The federal constitution of Canada, unlike that of Australia, offered no barrier to the exercise of this power by a national body. The national government's power over aviation was confirmed by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1932 as an instance of the government's power to implement Empire treaties. Re Aerial Navigation [1932], 1, Dominion Law Reports 58. In 1953 the Board was increased to nine members, five from the C.N.R. and 4 appointed by the Governor-General in Council. See for example the following newspaper editorial: “When President G. R. McGregor of Trans-Canada Airlines reports to Parliament, his favourite theme is the wickedness of competition in the air. He was on it again when he testified before the House of Commons committee recently. “Mr. McGregor complained bitterly of the injury T.C.A. had suffered at the hands of Canadian Pacific Air Lines since that company was permitted last year to operate a service from Vancouver to Montreal, thereby breaking T.C.A.‘s long monooly on trans-continental traffic. Since May, he claimed the privately-ownecf C.P.A. had ’diverted‘ 3,490,000 worth of business from the government airline.”Toronto Globe and Mail, Overseas Edition, London, 13 April, 1960. As at March 31st, 1959 (Canada Year Book, 1960, 156). “Autair Story: Hees Clashes with A.T.B.”, Financial Post, Toronto, 7 Nov. 1959, 52. Aircraft, Toronto, Vol. 22 (Jan. 1960), 58. Aircraft, Toronto, Vol. 22 (Dec., 1960), 66. Quoted, loc. cit. Canada, House of Commons Debates, 13 July, 1960, 6243. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Vol. S. 17, 6 April 1960, 495–497. Ibid., 497–500. Canada, House of Commons, Sessional Committee on Railways, Airlines and Shipping Owned and Controlled by the Government, Minutes and Proceedings, 1958, 214. These were put into service by British South American Airways Corporation, a separate public corporation created in 1946 and later absorbed by B.O.A.C. in 1949. W. A. Robson, op. cit., 160. 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