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The wide-bodied choice
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The real cliff-hanger in the Australian airline industry for the 1970s has been the choice and timing of a wide-bodied airliner for the domestic services. It is the biggest series of excuses and postponements our airlines have ever known and it could very well continue that way for another year or two. The delay could be cut down if the domestic traffic shows a strong and steady rise in the last half of calendar year 1977. If the executives at Ansett and TAA see steady progress past the Christmas/New Year holiday period, they could very well have an order in for some wide-bodied type by Easter.
Well, let’s hope so. The wide-body jet is long overdue here, but it is nevertheless very easy to criticise the management postponements from the outside. When you consider the fantastic cost of these big aeroplanes – around $20 million, give or take a few million according to size and timing of order – it must be obvious that re-equipment decisions these days are terrifying.
This does not get away from the patent fact that the first of the “smaller” wide-bodies (smaller than the first one, the Boeing 747) went into commercial operation on August 5, 1971. That was the DC-10 Series 10 with American Airlines, the domestic version. Six years is a long time between first commercial flight of the type and the Australian airline order – and it will be nearer to seven years, at least.
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