§ 36. Mr. Rankinasked the Minister of Aviation if he will give a general direction to British European Airways to publish detailed profit-and-loss accounts for all their domestic routes for every year since 1950.
§ Mr. ThorneycroftI do not consider that it would be in the interest of British European Airways to publish detailed commercial results of every route. It has, however, been their practice, in accordance with the advice of the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries, to give some particulars of the results on domestic services in their annual report.
§ Mr. RankinIf it is not advisable to publish detailed figures of the profit and loss accounts of every route, why is it that B.E.A. has detailed statistics of group domestic routes?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThis is what the Select Committee of the House of Commons suggested it should do.
§ Mr. RankinEven taking into account the difficulties created by allocating overheads covering all services, is it not possible from these figures to derive figures for the detailed routes?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftIt may be possible to devise such a system, but it is not the system recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons.