Flights Tours Bid Adjourned
Page 43
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Big application still has 10 objectors after latest hearing THE managing director of Flights Tours Ltd., Mr. K. Flight, told a public inquiry at Birmingham last week that in his view the days of putting out blackboards with destinations chalked on them as a means of attracting customers were over. The only way to expand excursion and tours business, he claimed, was through circulating attractive printed programmes--"not duplicated sheets"— and extensive newspaper advertising.
The inquiry, originally started last October, had lasted four days by the time it was adjourned on Monday. Ten of the original 19 objectors remained.
One of the largest applications by a single operator to come before the West Midland Traffic Commissioners in recent years, Flights arc seeking to amalgamate five Birmingham-based groups of tours on to one licence.
The total number of tours at present authorized on the five licences is 551, but with the deletion of duplications and obsolete destinations, the number asked for has been whittled down to some 320.
Of these 67 are new destinations. Also included in the application are 15 inclusive tours. A total vehicle allowance of 17 per day and 20 on special occasions such as Bank Holiday periods is sought.
In his evidence, Mr. Flight said that in the year ended October, 1964, his firm had carried 23,413 excursions and tours passengers. But in the year ended October, 1965, and having acquired an additional licence, the figure dropped by 4,051. He attributed this to dissatisfied customers who said there were not enough convenient picking-up points, and poor weather conditions.
It was his policy to provide the better type of vehicle with armchair comfort in order to obtain a loyal following. Programmes were sent through a mailing list to 20,000, half of them coach passengers. The remainder were customers of his garage business. -We encourage motorists to go on tours while their car is being serviced", he explained.
Mr. Flight spoke of his plans to expand three-, fourand five-day tours to UK destinations and the Continent. With many people venturing further afield he intended to introduce sleeper coaches in his fleet and to utilize the Queen Maty and Queen Elizabeth liners for short Continental holidays fantailing from Cherbourg. There was also a call for Continental day tours, taking the coach across the water by ferry.
However, owing to a publication technicality, Flights withdrew their two-to-sevenday Continental tours and would apply for these on a separate licence.
Cross-examined by Mr. I. McLaughlin, for the Stockland Group, Mr. Flight denied that long-distance day tours to such places as Ilfracombe were not popular and impracticable to run.
There were two alternative methods of operating the round trip of 386 miles, he said. One was to depart at 6.30 a.m., arrive at 2.30 p.m., depart again at 7 p.m. and arrive back in Birmingham in the early hours of the morning.
Alternatively, departure could be timed for midnight and the return journey started in the afternoon. This type of facility was being asked for by the younger type of passenger.
Re-examined, Mr. Flight agreed that somebody, somewhere at some time would have traffic abstracted from them if the licence were granted. He was of the opinion that Stockland and his firm should get together and agree on a common schedule, "otherwise we shall clash for ever more".
Mr. W. T. Nash, who , has a 21-vehicle business licensed to operate 101 destina tions, said he objected because his small catchment area with three picking-up points on the boundaries of Birmingham and Smethwick could not stand the resulting competition. His nearest competitor, Higgins, which Flights took over in 1964, had not operated its 25-tour licence to any extent for some time.
Cross-examined by Mr. G. H. P. Beams, for Flights, Mr. Nash said that he was objecting to some of the destinations which were not on his own licence. He was doing so because he felt he should be allowed to operate some of them, although he had not applied to do so—at any rate, in the recent past.
Mr. Nash admitted that although he was granted 21 new destinations in March, 1964, he had run only seven in that year and four in 1965.