§ 44. Mr. RENNIE SMITHasked the Secretary of State for Air if he can give the average costs per mile flown for British aeroplanes for each of the years since 1921, and the total number of miles flown each year?
§ Sir S. HOAREWith the hon. Member's permission I will circulate the reply, which contains figures in a tabulated form, in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the reply:
§ On the assumption that the purpose of the hon. Member's question is to ascertain the cost to the State per mile flown resulting from the division of the total amount of the subsidies paid each financial year by the total mileage flown on all British Air Transport Services, the figures are as follow:
| Average cost | ||||||
| Year. | Miles flown. | per mile. | ||||
| s. | d. | |||||
| 1921–22 | … | … | 259,000 | … | 5 | 10 |
| 1922–23 | … | … | 778,000 | … | 4 | 8 |
| 1923–24 | … | … | 1,004,000 | … | 2 | 6 |
| 1924–25 | … | … | 890,000 | … | 3 | 1½ |
| 1925–26 | … | … | 865,000 | … | 3 | 2 |
§ These costs, however, are misleading as no account is taken in them of the progressive increase in the capacity of the machines employed.
§ More comparable figures are furnished by the cost to the State per ton mile in respect of Imperial Airways Limited 's services, which is as follows since that company began to operate: —
| Cost per ton mile. | |||||
| … | … | … | s. | d. | |
| 1924–25 | … | … | … | 7 | 0 |
| 1925–26 | … | … | … | 6 | 11½ |
| 1926–27 (estimated) | … | … | … | 5 | 5¾ |