Originally Posted by
Michael Birbeck
The term Self Loading Freight is an ironic (some might say humorous) one but it also reflects a financial truth that people are cargo and that the more you can pack onto an aircraft the higher will be the carrier's return per air mile...... Sunderland flying boat with a long retired airline captain the other day and he was waxing lyrical about the enormous luxuries enjoyed by the early passengers on the Imperial Airline routes
This description is so full of inaccuracies that I'll just pick a few.
"The more you pack the higher return". This flies in the face of mainstream airline wisdom that it is the Premium, well spaced-out, nicely catered seats at the front where the money is made. Ask BA. And ask all those high-density seating carrers who have gone out of business.
"Sunderland" and "luxury" in the same sentence ? It had fixed seats, a tinpot galley which couldn't even manage ice for the drinks, vibration beyond adjectives from the four piston engines, no pressurisation so it blew your ears, reliability which led to arrivals at Southampton often days late and an accident record such that you needed to take out supplementary insurance. All for a return fare to Australia of more than the average annual salary.
In "Sunderland" I take it as a reference to the Empire/Sandringham/Solent types. The actual Sunderland was a military RAF aircraft.