LONDON-EDINBURGH AIR SERVICE (Hansard, 16 November 1948)

§ Mr. Willis (Edinburgh, North)
I am very glad tonight to have the opportunity of doing something which a short time ago the Opposition were suggesting could not be done—namely, to query on the Floor of the House the actions of one of the nationalised industries. I wish to raise the matter of the withdrawal of the Edinburgh-London air service. This service was withdrawn on 1st November. On 3rd November, in reply to a Question which I put to my hon. Friend, I was told that his noble Friend had approved the decision of B.E.A.C. to withdraw the London-Edinburgh service this winter, since he was satisfied that the service would incur a substantial loss and since the small demand for the service last winter suggested that its withdrawal would not involve any great inconvenience to the public.
The emphasis in that reply was on the profitability of the service, although my hon. Friend, after further questioning, admitted that there were certain technical difficulties involved in the maintenance of the service during the winter. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council, who displays a rather remarkable capacity for confusing issues, has devoted his journalistic talent to persuading the public that the withdrawal of this service has been due, in the main, to the technical deficiencies of Turnhouse as an airport.

§ Sir William Darling (Edinburgh, South)
Who is the Chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council?

§ Mr. Willis
I think the hon. Gentleman knows the answer to his question as well as I do. The arguments are twofold. First, we have the contention that it is due to the unprofitability of the service, and in the second place that it is due to the technical deficiencies of Turnhouse. I wish to deal with those arguments. It takes some time to create airmindedness in people who are provided with fairly comfortable and convenient alternative travelling facilities, but this was being done in the case of this service. Although 328 after the first few months of its operation, it fell away again, during the winter of 1947–48, nevertheless the number of passengers has increased considerably. In February, the number of passengers was 392 and by June it increased to 1,032, and I understand that it continued slightly to increase during the next month or two. In view of those figures, I contend that it was a most unbusinesslike decision to stop this service.
To create air-mindedness there must be regularity of service, instead of which, just as people were becoming accustomed to using this service, it was stopped. When the service recommences months will again have to be spent creating that attitude of mind which accepts air travel as the most convenient way of journeying between London and Edinburgh. Perhaps I may read what one of my constituents has to say about this in a letter which I received last week. He says: As a recent convert to air travel and as a user (three times) of this service this year, I should welcome its return. Many people have said how comfortable the service was, and the point is they, like myself, are just getting used to this form of transport. It seems to me a great pity to withdraw it at a time when the prospects of more regular travellers appear to be greater. When it starts again we shall all have to get used to it again, with an inevitable time lag and lack of patronage. That is quite true. Not only does the man have to get used to it; he has to persuade his wife to accept the idea that it is quite safe for him to travel by aeroplane.
But matters were made worse by the fact that while the closing of Turnhouse Airport was recommended in August, a month later it was decided to reduce the fare from £14 to £11. This reduction came into operation on 1st October, but before then the Minister had accepted the recommendation of the Scottish Advisory Committee to close the airport at Turnhouse, and to withdraw the London-Edinburgh service. Surely the businesslike thing to have done in this case would have been to have seen what effects the reduction in fare would have on the traffic carried. I am informed that on the day after the reduced fare came into operation 70 of the 84 seats available on the service were occupied. That might have been exceptional; it was on 2nd October, but we do know, if we are to accept the reports in the 329 Press, that the reduced fare has considerably increased the traffic between London and Glasgow.
We are entitled to assume that the effect which the reduced fare achieved on that route would also have been achieved on the Edinburgh-London route. I suggest that had this service been run in a more businesslike manner, the fare would have been reduced earlier in the summer and a more serious effort made to obtain extra traffic. Had this been done, I am fairly confident that greater traffic would have been obtained, particularly when we remember that for some 10 or 12 weeks from mid-August until 1st November, the train journey was a very wearisome one of 10 hours.
I turn to the second of the arguments, namely the condition of Turnhouse Airport. The argument of the Chairman of the Scottish Advisory Committee——

§ Sir W. Darling
What is his name?

§ Mr. Willis
—now seems to be, judging by what has appeared in the Press, that we should feel very happy because the service may be resumed next year, if the Minister gives his consent. Of course, the simple answer to the question of safety at Turnhouse appears to me to be that if it is unsafe this winter to use Turnhouse, then it was unsafe in the winter of 1947–48.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Mr. Lindgren)
It was not used regularly then.

§ Mr. Willis
It was used, and a service was operated during the winter of 1947–48. Let us assume that during the winter of 1947–48 certain navigational deficiencies were discovered. Then they should have been rectified during the summer and not left over sufficiently long to bring about a complete stoppage of the service. It is interesting to notice also that on the day that the B.E.A.C. decided not to use Turn-house, Aer Lingus, carrying passengers from Dublin to Renfrew, had to drop them at Turnhouse, while passengers being carried from London to Edinburgh, via Renfrew, had to be dropped at Preston.
For those reasons, I believe that the decision of the Ministry to stop this service was wrong. It was run, I think, in a most unbusinesslike manner, and, of course, present emphasis on the deficien- 330 cies at Turnhouse only serve to show that the proper development of Turnhouse has been neglected. It is somewhat ironical to recall that the first report ever prepared on the provision of civil airfields in this country, a report that appeared in 1919 by General Sir Frederick Sykes, then Controller-General for Civil Aviation, placed Edinburgh at the head of a list of 10 centres in the country at which it was considered necessary to have proper airport facilities.
Thirty years have passed since then and we still have not got at Edinburgh proper airfield facilities. I believe that today Edinburgh is the only capital city in the whole of Europe without a single air service. We should like tonight to have some assurance from my hon. Friend that Turnhouse will be made capable of operating a winter service quickly, that the London-Edinburgh service will be resumed at the earliest possible date and that Edinburgh will, in the future, receive the attention which, as the capital city of Scotland, it deserves.

§ Mr. Rankin (Glasgow, Tradeston)
Whatever difference may arise between Glasgow and Edinburgh on the proper dress of its civic heads on ceremonial occasions, I want to assure my hon. Friend that no such difference exists on this occasion. I think that he has presented a fair and reasonable case for the resumption of this service. I wish to pursue one aspect that he touched upon, namely, the profitability of the service. I think that is a most important point, and I suggest that the whole fare structure of the internal services of B.E.A.C. ought now to be the subject of very close scrutiny.
We have altered the pitch of the seats in the Dakota aircraft which we are now flying and as a result, these aircraft are now able to carry 28 passengers. The fare has been reduced to £11, and a great deal has been made of that; but I want to say—and I am not saying it as a Scotsman—that the fare is still too high and ought to be reduced still further. The running costs of a Dakota machine between London and Glasgow and Edinburgh cannot exceed £90. I am not certain of the exact figure but I am basing it on the Viking cost, which is £60 per hour. A Dakota must be running at a total expenditure of £90 for the journey. 331 If we get a pay-load of 70 per cent., then the revenue on that journey is £110, and £90 is an all-in cost, which leaves a profit of £20 on the journey. If we take a 100 per cent. pay-load—which we want and which we can get when the fare structure is made a proper one—then the revenue for that journey is £154 for an expenditure of £90.
Those figures are fairly accurate. I do not say that they are completely accurate. They are my figures—I alone am responsible for them—but they are not far wide of the mark. I suggest that there is a case for a further reduction in the internal fares, which are not governed by the International Association's fare charges. When we have a reduced fare, then I am certain that we will realise another aim which I hope is the aim of everyone interested in civil aviation—a service between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh every hour.

§ Lieut.-Commander Clark Hutchison (Edinburgh, West)
The hon. Member for North Edinburgh (Mr. Willis) dealt adequately with the present unsatisfactory state of the Edinburgh-London air service and with the meanderings of Sir Patrick Dollan, Chairman of the Advisory Committee. I do not think I need follow him on that. I wish to ask the Minister one question. When this matter arose at Question Time on 3rd November, he happened to mention that passengers were taken from Edinburgh to Renfrew by motor coach. I expressed some surprise at that statement. So that we may get this matter in the proper perspective, can the Minister give some figure to show how many passengers per day or per week are in fact taken from Edinburgh to Renfrew in order to fly to London?

§ Mr. Niall Macpherson (Dumfries)
Can the Minister indicate the inter-relationship of the price policy and the time schedule. I have always said that it would be impossible to defend the extra price of air services as compared with road services unless it was possible for a business man to travel to Edinburgh and back on the same day. I still believe that that is the case. I believe that had the price of the service been lowered for the summer months sooner, that step would have been justified by increased traffic.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Mr. Lindgren)
In reply to the straight question asked by the hon. and gallant Member for West Edinburgh (Lieut.-Commander Hutchison), I must say that without notice I could not give details of the number who travelled by road. At the moment, I take my information from the Scottish Press, which states that there is a morning and evening service by road, and that there is an intention to provide road facilities for a mid-day service. I will get the information and send it to the hon. and gallant Gentleman.

§ Lieut.-Commander Hutchison
If I put down a Question, will the hon. Gentleman give me the details?

§ Mr. Lindgren
Yes, with pleasure. I will now deal with the points relating to the withdrawal of this service. Let us be perfectly frank at the outset. The fact is that Edinburgh simply has not supported the service. Even in the summer months, the load factor was so low that we could not make a profit and the service ran at a loss.

§ Mr. Willis
Can my hon. Friend give the figures? I have the figures until June. Will he give the figures for the next three months?

§ Mr. Lindgren
Yes. The details of scheduled passenger traffic are: for July, 1,031; for August, 1,288; for September, 1,194; and for October, 954. There was a drop in October even though the fares had been reduced. I say with all respect, not only to Edinburgh but to every part of the country where an air service is provided, that if the people want that service to be maintained they must take some interest in it.

§ Mr. Willis
I am sorry to interrupt, but this is an important matter. I understand that the figure of 1,032 for June represents roughly 50 per cent. of the pay-load. The passengers carried in August represent over 60 per cent. of the pay-load. What must be the percentage of the load before the service pays?

§ Mr. Lindgren
If we could maintain a steady load factor of 70 per cent., we could break even and indeed show a profit, but unfortunately we never did get a 70 per cent. load factor on the Edinburgh service. As soon as it was publicly 333 announced that the service would be withdrawn, use of the service by people in Edinburgh began to increase, but the decision to discontinue the service was made because of the very low load factor during last winter. That low load factor during the winter was partially caused, I quite agree, by the unsatisfactory condition of the airport. It is not up to Dakota standard, and is something of a fair weather airport.
I have the greatest sympathy with the traveller and, if we are to maintain a good load factor with our air services, the passenger must be able to depend on regularity. It is hopeless if an Edinburgh business man, having an important engagement in London at 11 a.m. and going to the Edinburgh airport to catch a plane at 8 a.m., finds that it is not taking off. If he does that two or three times, he will in future play for safety, book a sleeper, go by train, arrive at King's Cross, have a bath and breakfast and so be certain to be ready for his appointment. This tendency towards irregularity creates the greatest problem in the mind of the intending traveller, and his reaction is evidenced by the decreasing pay load. Even during this summer the load factor was irregular, and we could not guarantee regularity for the coming winter, and so decided to withdraw the service.
Then my hon. Friend quite rightly put the point that we have withdrawn the service for this winter, although, in fact, we ran it last winter. It is perfectly true that we ran the service then, but the load factor was down to 15 or 18 per cent. and never once during the winter months went above 20 per cent.

§ Mr. Willis
The fact is that the Ministry ran the service last winter, whereas the argument now is that they cannot run it.

§ Mr. Lindgren
No, Sir. We could run the service in exactly the same way as we ran it last winter. We could run that service if, in fact, the conditions were such that we could get into the airport, but the mere fact of irregularity of the service causes a low load factor, and it is the British taxpayers' money with which we are playing. [An HON. MEMBER: "And the Scots."] Yes, the Scots contribute, but so do our good friends from Wales who do not get an air service at all. My noble Friend did not feel pre- 334 pared to justify, either to himself, this House or to another place, the continuance of this service which he knew was going to run at a very heavy loss during this winter.

§ Mr. N. Macpherson
Can the hon. Gentleman say what the regularity was during the winter?

§ Mr. Lindgren
During the summer, it was practically 100 per cent., but in the winter it was worse owing to the weather. It is an unfortunate fact that we cannot determine what sort of weather we are likely to have. I will, however, give this guarantee to the House. The service will be recommenced next spring or summer, and the intention is to start in March or April ready for the spring and summer schedules. Certain alterations will have to be carried out at Turnhouse to make it possible for winter services to operate regularly. However, I must give the warning that, unless the load factor is satisfactory during the summer months, the service will again be withdrawn in the winter, because if we cannot get a satisfactory air service between Edinburgh and London, one which will show a reasonable load factor in summer when traffic figures tend to be at their highest, then we shall not have a service in the winter. My noble Friend is not prepared to run services to Edinburgh which entail a considerable loss.
My hon. Friend referred to the fact that 30 years ago Edinburgh was declared by the Director-General of the Air Services to be a place suitable for an airport. May I be forgiven for calling attention to the fact that the representatives of Edinburgh, some of whom have had a great deal to do with the municipal conduct of that city, did nothing about it. They had all the necessary local government powers, and successive Conservative Air Ministers urged them to do something about providing an airport for their city.

§ Sir W. Darling
The City of Edinburgh employed a specialist in the design of airports to prepare a plan for such an airport, but it was finally condemned because it was unsuitable. We appealed to the Air Ministry for their guidance, but we got nothing more from them than we are getting tonight.

§ Mr. Lindgren
I do not know when that was; I am not one to start a war between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

§ Sir W. Darling
I do not think the hon. Gentleman could.

§ Mr. Lindgren
I know they all love one another like real blood brothers. Whether we think of Glasgow or of Renfrew, there were even greater difficulties in regard to the provision of an airport in that area. But Glasgow has now an airport which is not altogether satisfactory from the point of view of weather and its approaches, but it is one which will give a more regular service than Edinburgh. The topography of the ground, so far as Turnhouse is concerned, makes it most difficult. It requires a low approach, and we are carrying out experiments with back markers on the S.B.A. approach system, and also considering the lengthening of one of the runways.
336 This matter has been fully discussed and agreed in Scotland. It is not an armchair decision from someone in London. Scotland asked for, and was given, a measure of local autonomy in regard to these services. The proposal was put to the Scottish Advisory Council, and there was very considerable discussion. If I read "The Scotsman" of 8th November rightly, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who put up an excellent fight for retaining the service on both the Scottish Aerodromes Board and the Scottish Advisory Council, now agrees, with all the facts before him, that the correct thing to do is to withdraw the service. I promise that the service will be recommenced if the City of Edinburgh and the surrounding district are sufficiently enthusiastic about it and if it gives us the load factor.