Originally Posted by
Chris Scott
So what kind of payload would be possible at a T.O.W. of 138.5T (138,500 kg), assuming a flight time to Gatwick of 8:00 hrs, using Manchester as the alternate? ... Allowing an average of 100 kg per adult passenger with baggage, that would have enabled a full cabin in BUA's scheduled all-economy config (132Y) pertaining in 1964/5.
As those who handled these routes at the time may recall, there is a longstanding airfreight demand from Europe southward to Africa, comprising all sorts from medical supplies, car parts, electronics, in fact just about anything that you don't want to turn up 3 months later via seafreight and onward overland transport with more than half smashed or pilfered. Return loads not much. This suited the MTOWs of sea level takeoffs in Europe compared to the hot & high ones in Africa.
Nowadays with more capable and capacious aircraft, the northbound cargo space available is what has driven the fresh foodstuffs and flowers export development from East Africa to Europe. Sometimes argued against by the Greta team for airfreighting, but in fact it's just taking advantage of marginal capacity which otherwise always returned empty.
I did hear that the main time the pax cabin was full northbound was when all the expat kids were returning to boarding school, apparently flights that were an interesting challenge for the cabin crew. I wonder if you could make any reduction in allowable weight per pax then.