SAA Orange Tail

APRIL 1970 NO. 76 ITALY LURES Kobie van Rooyen, District Sales Manager, Johannesburg, recently hosted the group of Travel Agents pictured above on an S.A.A. Agents’ Educational tour to Rome, Florence, Capri, Naples and Pompei. They are from left to right: Mrs. P. Wright, Johannesburg; Mrs. P. Strydom, Durban; Mrs. G. Taylor, Pretoria; Mrs. L. Laing, Johannesburg; Mr. D. Barnard, Durban; Mr. G. S. Blake, Randfontein; Kobie van Rooyen, Mr. H. C. van der Walt, Vanderbijlpark; Mr. P. J. Kilian, Vanderbijlpark; Mrs. T. Clifton Smith, Cape Town; Miss S. Harmuth, Cape Town; Mr. J. Fleet, Cape Town and Mr. J. P. du Plessis, Johannesburg. Following are some comments received from tour members:­ Mrs. Wright: “I was able to visit many places of interest in Italy for the first time and found the arrangements made excellent.” Mr. Barnard: “The arrangements in Italy were very well conducted indeed and we were most fortunate with the prevailing weather conditions.” Mr. Blake: “The service on South African Airways both first and economy class cannot be beaten, and even the extra time involved in flying around the ‘bulge’ is discounted by the friendly service of the S.A.A. staff.” ———- 707 HANGAR The biggest structure of its kind in Southern Africa has been handed over to South African Airways at Jan Smuts Airport. It is the new Boeing 707 hangar which is 373 ft. wide, 170 ft. long and 72 ft. high. It cost R480,000. It was designed to accommodate two Boeing 707 intercontinental jets side-by-side, but can actually house three. The giant doors are electrically operated. ———- OPSKUD! Een van die vele deel­nemers aan die “Tip-to-Top” -wedren afgeneem by die aanmeldpunt op die Jan Smutslughawe pas nadat by die bopunt van die toring verlaat het en per helikopter op die laaiblad neergelaat is. Hy is mnr. Dan Pienaar wat self ‘n helikopter-loods is en ‘n aandeel in ‘n helikopter­diens besit. Dit was ‘n skouspel­agtige naelloop van die helikopter tot by S.A.L-toe­sighoudster, mej. Eileen Johnston, wat ook die stop­horlosie gedruk het. Mnr. Pienaar het kort hierna sy wedren voortgesit aan boord ‘n S.A.L.-Boeing 727 en het terloops as wenner in afdeling C uit die wedren getree! - ———- THE DRILL This photo was taken during recent ditching drill in­structions for the 25 new S.A.A. overseas hostesses. The procedure was filmed as a tail-end to a newsfilm on the training of international Air Hostesses. When the Boeing door was flung open the escape chute did exactly what the book says. It dropped away from the door panel and inflated in seconds with a resounding bang. Then the girls came sliding down, first amid typical feminine shrieks but shortly afterwards, as the game became more and more enjoyable with each slide-down, the fun had to be stopped a:most forcibly. As a point of interest, the chute can also be dislodged from the aircraft and used as a dinghy. ———– BLOMMEKENNER Ontmoet mnr. D. J. (Dirk) de Milander, klerk in die afdeling padvervoer van die S.A.L, op Jan Smutslug­hawe. Dirk, voorheen van Kaap­stad, is ‘n uithaler dahlia­-kweker wat met groot ge­sag oor hierdie blomsoort kan uitwei. Hierdie stok­perdjie het begin toe hy ‘n aantal dahliabolle heel toevallig bekom het. Die prag-blomme waarmee mnr. De Milander beloon is het hom onmiddellik aange­spoor tot beter pogings. Uiteindelik het die blomgehaltes al hoe meer verbeter en na ‘n besoek aan ‘n dahliaskou in Kaapstad het Dirk tot die ge­volgtrekking gekom dat sommige van sy eie pogings ook die paal behoort te haal. Gedurende 1964, met sy eerste skou­poging het hy die Britse Tuinboumedalje met die drie beste kaktus-dahlias verower. Hierna het sake sommer flink begin verloop alhoewel ‘n verhuising ietwat van ‘n terugslag be­teken het aangesien al sy gevestigde blomme in vreemde grond en omstandighede oorgeplant moes word. Dirk met sommige van sy bewysstukke van welslae. In 1967 en weer eens in 1968 het hy soortgelyke medal­jes verower. Daar is terloops meer as 3,000 blomme deur mededingers vir die 1968-tentoonstelling ingeskryf. Verder spog Dirk ook nog met ‘n aantal vergulde sertifikate wat hy van tyd tot tyd losgeslaan het. Dit verg groot toewyding, aandag en liefde vir die grond om ‘n biom van skougehalte te kweek. Behalwe vir ‘n gedurige stryd teen siektes, plae en weerstoestande is tyds­berekening van groot belang. Bolle moet so aangeplant en behandel word dat die blomme op hul beste sal vertoon tydens die skou. Daar is ‘n groot verskeidenheid variëteite waarin ge­spesialiseer kan word en nuwe soorte kan van saad voort­gebring word. Die grootste dahlia dusver gekweek is ‘n bielie van 17; duim in deursnee. Dit is ‘n reus in vergelyking met die klein Australiese Porn Pom” van slegs sowat 1 duim in deursnee. Mnr. de Milander se jongste welslae is die onlangse inpalming van die puntetrofeë van die Kempton Parkse Tuinbouvereniging. Dirk en sy eggenote, wat hom in sy stokperdjie bystaan met watertoediening en hulp, nooi dahlialiefhebbers uit om hulle kennis te kom ruil en te deel. ———- 747 DESPATCH RELIABILITY HIGH Overall Boeing 747 despatch reliability rate was approxi­mately 89 per cent just one month after the superjets started airline service, Mr. E. H. Boullioun, Boeing Commer­cial Aircraft Group vice president and general manager, has told 747 customer airline presidents. Passenger reaction after 747 flights has been “enthusi­astic”, he said, and “747 in-service experience to date is very encouraging”. Reviewing the record of the 747, he said despatch relia­bility is better than the previous experience on new large model aircraft such as the 707. Despatch reliability rate is the percentage of flights departing on schedule or with no more than 15 minutes delay for mechanical reasons. Mr. Boullioun said most passengers flying in 747′s indicate they prefer the 747 over other jets. He noted that two daily Pan American World Airways 707 flights between New York and London have been replaced by one 747 flight, and the 747 flight carries approximately twice as many passengers as the two 707 flights did a year ago. Passenger check-in, baggage sorting, container loading and galley service operations are meeting expectation. Pas­senger boarding and disembarking are being accomplished faster than had been estimated. Postflight baggage delivery to claiming areas is equal to or better than that of other jets. “Pilot reaction to the 747 has been good,” Mr. Boullioun said. They like the aircraft’s stability, control and easy hand­ling. Transition training for ‘flight crews has presented no difficulties.” ———- GOOD FUTURE FOR AIR CARGO A bright future for air cargo to and from South Africa has been forecast by top BOAC cargo officials who recently visited Johannesburg. Meeting in South Africa for the first time to hold a cargo sales conference, 26 of the airline’s United Kingdom managers timed their visit to coincide with the official announcement of the start of an all-freight air service between London and Johannesburg. The service which will be operated jointly by South African Airways and BOAC, starts on May 2 and will be the fastest cargo link between the two centres. The jet will leave London at 8 a.m. on Saturdays, arriving at 9.50 p.m. the same day at Jan Smuts Airport. After a few hours for loading and unloading, it will leave Johannesburg at 1.15 a.m. on Sundays, arriving in London at 1.20 p.m. “With the healthy trade between South Africa and Britain, we believe that the service will be well patronised,” Mr. R. J. Walden, BOAC’s marketing Manager for the United Kingdom said. Our overall cargo growth forecast is 20 per cent a year – and we believe this figure will be maintained on the United Kingdom-South Africa sector. “On this route, about 80% of the total cargo revenue will come from southbound flights. But there are exception­ally interesting opportunities for exporting South African perishables on the northbound flights,” he said. “The growing affluence in Europe today opens up a rapidly widening market for imports such as fruit, flowers and other perishables of a luxury nature,” he said. “With BOAC and S.A.A. due to operate Boeing 747 jets on this route, it is obviously in the interests of both the carriers to stimulate the growth of this type of traffic as much as possible.” ———- AIR SAFETY CALL BY I.A.T.A. New and reinforced measures to protect passengers and aircraft against acts of armed aggression on airliners and airports were called for by IATA’s Executive Committee at its special meeting recently held in Geneva. Governments were urged to work out international legis­lation to: Punish those placing explosives intended to damage planes. Make hijacking an offence carrying severe penalties. Guarantee the extradition of hijackers where necessary. The executive also asked governments to ensure maximum sec­urity against unlawful acts against planes and to appoint national security co-ordinators directly responsible to the cabinet minister in charge of civil aviation. The meeting urged airport authorities to provide facilities for airlines to screen passengers, baggage and cargo, using decompression chambers, x-rays and chemical detectors, and to ensure that airmail was similarly screened. It called on airlines to standardise security measures and to exchange a maximum of information on security. The executive set up a sub-committee to advise the Director on security matters. ———-

PRESS IT… CLICK IT… OUT COMES TICKET

Tomorrow’s airline passenger won’t have to stand in line at the airport waiting for his ticket. All he has to do – once his reservation is made – is insert his Air Travel Card into an automatic ticketing machine, press a few buttons to indicate flight number and class of service, and the ticket will drop into his hands. While this futuristic procedure may sound like some­thing out of the movie “2001″, it came a step closer to reality with the announcement by the Air Transport Associa­tion of America (ATA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that the widely used Air Travel Card is getting a new magnetic stripe which will allow it to be used in automatic ticketing machines. Prototype models of the automatic ticketing machines are now being developed by several airlines and will be in limited use in some major airport cities before the end of the year. The new credit card specifications were adopted by the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) committee, which admin­isters the Air Travel Card programme for the airlines throughout the world. George A. Buchanan, secretary of the UATP committee, says adoption of the new specifications “is a significant step because it will undoubtedly lead the way to a similar change in format by other credit cards which are honoured by the airlines. It also will give manufacturers the specifica­tions needed to plan for volume production of automatic ticketing machines and will allow airlines to move ahead quickly with installation of the machines”, he said. The appearance of the present Air Travel Card will be unchanged except for the addition of the magnetic stripe encoded with information (i.e. name, account number) needed to use the card in the automatic ticketing machines. With the big, new planes capable of carrying more than 300 pasengers, the industry recognised the need for auto­mated passenger processing systems, including more effi­cient ticketing service. A joint working group of airline representatives from ATA and IATA began studying how to speed up the ticketing process more than two years ago, leading to the adoption of the new Air Travel Card specifi­cations.

Eventually, the automatic ticketing machines will tie into the reservations systems of the airlines, enabling the pas­senger to press a button to see if there is a seat available on the desired flight before pressing another button to have his ticket drop into his hands. This will eliminate the need to call the airlines for flight availability information, as well as standing in line for a ticket.

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COFFEE TESTS ASSIST BOEING CUSTOMERS

Coffee preparation seems remote from building jet transports, but the Boeing Company is studying the first to support the other. Recognising the sales appeal of a good cup of coffee, several airlines have sought Boeing’s assistance to deter­mine how to obtain the best brew around. A passenger payload systems engineer, who normally is concerned with the weight and size of coffee makers to be fitted into aircraft compact galleys, has been appointed to study the relationship of the coffee makers to coffee brands. A small “coffee shop” has been set up in the com­pany’s 737 division to test the brands and the 8-to-12-cup machines which brew the coffee and deposit it directly into serving decanters within three minutes. A hydrometer is used to test the beverage’s specific gravity, which is then converted to the per cent of soluble solids (coffee) in the liquid. It has been found that the tastiest range of soluble solid coffee content in the brew is from 1.15 to 1.35 per cent. The study is being conducted on the three brands of coffee available to the largest number of airlines and three coffee makers. Data accumulated in the comparison tests will be provided to 737 operators for their further evaluation. With an engineering mockup of a Boeing 737 as a backdrop coffee brewed by machines used in jetliners is analysed by the scientific method of a hydrometer and doublechecked by the familiar taste test. The evaluation is part of a Boeing study for airline customers to determine the best way to make a good cup of coffee for passengers. ———- SALES COURSE Another group of S.A.A’s overseas staff who recently attended a sales course at Airways Centre, Johannesburg. They are from left to right­ Standing: Mr. C. B. Bailey (Birmingham) ; Mr. F. J. Kirk (London); Mr. J. Myburgh (Trainer); Mr. J. B. M. Duncan (London); Mr. P. Minelli (Turin); Mr. G. Martinelli (Flor­ence) ; Mr. Dos Santos Borba (Las Palmas) ; Mr. P. Buchner (Lecturer). Seated: Mr. R. S. Oakman (Sydney) ; Mr. G. Worthy (San Francisco) ; Miss M. Parize (Paris) ; Mr. K. F. Mclntyre (Melbourne); Mr. M. T. de Oliveira (Rio de Janeiro). ———- AIR-SIAM BECOMES 104th I.A.T.A. MEMBER Air-Siam has joined the International Air Transport As­sociation as an active member as of March 24, 1970. The membership of IATA, including Air-Siam, now totals 104 airlines comprised of 90 active and 14 associate mem­bers representing 85 countries. Air-Siam’s head office is located in Bangkok, Thailand and the airline operates scheduled cargo services between Bangkok and Hong Kong. NOTE: Membership in IATA, the world airlines organisation, is open to carriers operating scheduled air services under the flag of a nation eligible for membership in ICAO. Air­lines engaged directly in international operations may become active members while domestic carriers are eligible as associate members. ———- SAAFARI OP DREEF Sedert goedkeuring van die Minister van Vervoer ont­vang is om die besprekingstelsel van die Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens na ‘n ten voile geoutomatiseerde stelsel oor te skakel, gons dit in die lugdienssentrum in Johannesburg. Personeel is van verskeie sentrums van die Lugdiens en Spocrweë getrek, om van die begin van 1969 opleiding te ontvang, sodat hulle behulpsaam kan wees om die ste;sel in werking te stel. Die stelsel sal as SAAFARI bekend staan. Sekere personeel van die dataverwerkingafdeling van die Lugdiens is na Londen, Zilrich en New York gestuur om in te studeer in verskeie aspekte van die intydse plekbe­sprekingstelsel. Hierdie personeel tree tans op as groep­leiers om die verskeie onderafdelings van die stelsel, op verskillende stadiums, prakties te toets. Van die personeel wat na Londen gestuur is, het ook aktief deelgeneem aan die skryf en opstel van programme wat sekere funksies van die plekbesprekingsnetwerk sal verrig. Dit is gedoen in samewerking met personeel van BOAC en IBM. Hierdie personeel was dertien maande oorsee en het hulle tyd gewy aan die stel programme wat „bood­skapskakeling” sal verrig. Dit is ‘n stelsel wat ondermeer alle teleksboodskappe, selfs van oorsee, sal ontvang en na hulle regte bestemming sal rig. ‘n Teleksboodskap word ook ontleed en indien dit nodig sou wees dat meer as een sentrum van die inhoud moet kennis dra, sal boodskappe outomaties na alle betrokkenes gestuur word. Die S.A.L. sal vanaf 1 Oktober vanjaar die “boodskap­skakelingstelsel” in gebruik neem, wat hom dus die eerste lugredery maak wat tot die stap oorgaan. Die rekenoutomaat sal ook gebruik word om p:ekbe­sprekings-personeel prakties op te lei. Dit is ‘n aparte stel programme wat aan personeel hulle foute sal uitwys indien hulle nie die regte prosedure volg nie. Um aan te dui wat alles in verband met bespreking met die rekenaar gedoen kan word, sal boekdele beslaan. Wet kortliks met ‘n intydse stelsel bedoel word is dot indien inligting van die rekenoutomaat gevra word van enige van verskeie sentrums dwarsoor die Republiek, die rekenaar binne 3 sekondes sal antwoord, al sou die meer as 250 stelle wat met die rekenaar verbind is gelyktydig daarvoor vra. Die verskaffing van inligting aan die rekenaar word net so blitsig aanvaar. Daar word ten nouste saamgewerk met ander rederye wat ook van hierdie besprekingstelsel gebruik maak. Ver­gaderings word gehou vvaarop probleme bespreek word en inligting vir die oplossirig van probleme asook inligting wat bekom is om die stelsel meer vaartbelyn en doeltreffend te maak, onderling uitgeruil word. ———- WHITE-COLLAR WORKER The privileges of being a white-collar worker 100 years ago are apparent from the following directive issued to its staff by a firm in Britain in 1852, when new labour laws had been introduced:­ 1. Godliness, cleanliness and punctuality are the neces­sities of a good business. 2. This firm has reduced the hours of work and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. 3. Daily prayers will be held each morning in the main office. The clerical staff will be present. 4. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colours. 5. Overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in incle­ment weather. 6. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recom­mended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during cold weather. 7. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from Mr. Rogers. The calls of nature are permitted and clerical staff may use the garden below the second gate. This area must be kept in good order. 8. No talking is allowed during business hours. 9. The craving for tobacco, wines or spirits is a human weakness and as such forbidden to all members of the clerical staff. 10. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11.30 a.m. and noon, but work will not on any account cease. 11. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. 12. Mr. Rogers will nominate a senior clerk to be respon­sible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. Brushes, brooms, scrubbers and soap are provided by the owners. ———-

ADS. BETTER … SERVICE WORSE

In an article written for an American advertising publi­cation a writer by the name of Harrey Wayne McMahan has some interesting observations to make on present airline advertising trends. He maintains that advertising is directed almost exclusively at the consumer and that the producer has too little idea of what claims are actually being made by the advertis­ing agents. It is no use making extravagant claims in ad­vertisements without being able to back them up. The result­ing imbalance is neatly summed up by McMahan in one sentence: “Too-good advertising hastens too-fast customer disillusion on a too-bad product.” In a service organisation it is best to sell the advertising to the people who perform the service first of all. Employees should take note of the claims which are made in the air­line’s advertising campaigns, and should try to live up to these claims as far as possible. ———-