Ten Economic Lessons from Short-Haul Airline Operations

Abstract

The 1,179th Main Lecture to be given before the Society–and the first Main Lecture to be given in the new Lecture Theatre–“Ten Economic Lessons from Short-Haul Airline Operations,” was given by Mr. S. F. Wheatcroft, B.Sc.(Econ.), A.F.R.Ae.S., on 15th December 1960. Mr. P. G. Masefield, M.A.(Eng.), F.R.Ae.S., Hon.F.I.A.S., Immediate Past President, presided.

Before introducing the Lecturer, Mr. Masefield said ttiat this was an auspicious occasion because this was the first Main Society Lecture to be held in the Lecture Theatre. Although he was sure there was nobody better fitted than Steve Wheatcroft to give this first lecture and no more valuable subject than the economic lessons from short-haul airline operations, Mr. Wheatcroft unfortunately had let the side down by not requiring any of the modern pushbutton equipment which was a feature of the Lecture Theatre.

Steve Wheatcroft was known to everybody in air transport, not only in this country but all over the world, where he spent half his time when he was not advising B.E.A. on what not to do. Mr. Wheatcroft obtained his B.Sc. degree with first class honours in economics at the London School of Economics in 1942. After the war, during which he served as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, he returned to the London School of Economics, taking a Leverhulme Post Graduate Studentship and studying, in particular, the economics of air transport. He was appointed Economic Adviser to British European Airways in 1946 and subsequently joined the Commercial Department as Manager in charge of Research and Tariffs. In 1953 he left the Corporation to go to Manchester University as a Simon Research Fellow and wrote a book called “The Economics of European Air Transport”. Wheatcroft on “The Economics of European Air Transport” was still a standard and was rapidly becoming a classic work. Since 1954 he had acted as a Consultant and had been retained as Economic Adviser to British European Airways. In 1958 he was commissioned by the Canadian Government to make a study of the desirability and economic consequences of trans-continental competition and his report, “Air Competition in Canada,” was published in June 1958. In 1959 he was appointed Chairman of a Committee set up by the Government of India to investigate the cost structure of the Indian Airline Corporation. More recently he had been a member of the Tymms Committee to the West Indian Government to advise on civil air policy in the West Indies, and now, he was about to go to Nigeria to tell them how to do it.