§ 19. Mr. William Shepherdasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation the percentage of empty seats on British operated continental services during September.
Mr. LinǵgrenThe number of empty seats on British operated continental services, exclusive of those services operated by the Royal Air Force Transport Command, during September, amounted to 15.4 per cent. of the total seats available.
§ Mr. ShepherdIn view of the fact that the percentage of low loading is increasing, why are the Government delaying the abolition of priorities on these routes?
Mr. LindǵrenThe delay in the abolition of priorities is necessitated by priority travellers, although, in fact, at the London Priorities Board the priorities are reviewed almost week by week, certainly month by month. As and when it is possible either to reduce or abolish priorities entirely, that will be done; but low loading has nothing to do with the Priorities Board, because the seats are made available by the corporations, and in almost every case empty priority seats are released by the corporations.
§ Mr. MarloweCould the hon. Gentleman say how many seats that percentage represents?
Mr. LindǵrenThe total number of seats available was 8,540. The actual number of seats used was 6,871. However, those unused seats do not necessarily arise from failure to load in this country. While every effort is made to arrange through traffic, the lack of through traffic does mean that certain seats are not used for part of the journey.
§ Lieut.-Commander Gurney BraithwaiteIs not the chief difficulty the fact that when these priority seats are released, insufficient time is given to allow them to be used for alternative commercial purposes?