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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0575.PDF
FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 21, 1933 LONDON SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC ASSOCIATION T 'HE Thirteenth Bi-Annual meeting of the International Air Traffic Association is to be held in London, in the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn, on September 27 and 28. The chairman this year will be Mr. Woods Humphery, Managing Director of Imperial Airways, Ltd. The opening address will be delivered by the Marquess of Londonderry, Secretary of State for Air. The I.A.T.A. includes the principal air" transport companies of Europe as its members, to the number of about 30, and holds its meetings in different European capitals in rota tion. This year 15 countries will be represented at the session. After the opening address, the meetings are held in private. The existence of I.A.T.A. is a tribute, to the long sight of the late Sir Sefton Brancker, who, so long ago as 1919, saw that many questions of air transport would arise which could only be conveniently settled by having regular meet ings of the various air transport companies. Of course, in 1919 air transport was in a very elementary state. The air lines of the world did not cover more than 3,000 miles. Since then the growth has been steady and con tinuous, and the figure to-day is more than 200,000 miles. Of these about 60,000 miles are flown over Europe. Nearly 800 aircraft are in regular operation in Europe, while about 150 Continental cities are connected with London bv air. This is an astonishing increase in the time. To watch the network of airways gradually spreading over Europe has been a fascinating task. We pub lish on another page a map showing the air lines now in existence over Europe, so far as we have been able to ascertain the facts. It must be admitted that the map looks more like a spider's web than anything else. But the more bewildering it is at first glance, the more impressive it becomes as one studies it. The multitude of the lines between the cities is the most gratifying, as well as the most bemus ing, feature of this map. In fact, the harder it is to understand, the more may readers of FLIGHT congratulate themselves on the progress of air transport. Of course, it must be realised that nearly all of these air lines are heavily subsidised by some Government. That is inevitable in the early days of a new form of transport, and these are still early days for aeronautics. These subsidies are investments, which in good time will surely repay the people who have provided them. Air trans port has come to stay. In addition to the map, we have collected some information, as com plete as we have been able to make it. y~~ The late Sir Sefton Brancker. (FLIGHT Photo.) 929 about the air lines in all the countries of Europe which can boast any air lines at all. We hope that this will prove of interest to our readers, and especially to the delegates to the I.A.T.A. Though the meetings of the I.A.T.A. will be held in secret, we feel sure that much important work will be done at them. Much has already been accomplished in past years in the direction of unifying the methods of airway operation. Traffic by air over inter-connected routes has been facilitated, facilities such as standard consignment notes for air-borne traffic have been provided, and methods of procedure generally have been simplified. It is work of a kind which never comes to an end. New questions are always cropping up, and require to be dealt with at the next meeting of the I.A.T.A. We wish the delegates a happy issue out of all their troubles in the coming session. A list of the delegates attending the present session is given on page 954. AIR-FRANCE ""•IVIL aviation in France as represented by the air ^ line companies has recently been subject to an in teresting development. There has been a fusion into one huge organisation of the five prin cipal companies, to operate under the name of Air-France. Monsieur Pierre Cot, the French Air Minister, has been primarily responsible for this unifica tion, of which he has always been in favour. He is representative of the new type of Air Minister, who accepts his office with great enthusiasm and recognises the value and effect of acquiring practical skill by becoming a pilot. The five companies amalgamated were: Air Union, Farman, C.I.D.N.A., Air Orient, and the Compagnie A6ro- postale. These concerns operated air routes which linked France with North Africa, Turkey, Sweden, Saigon (French Indo-China), and South America, to mention some of the most distant places. Air-France, the new company, has a capital of 120 million francs, and its board of directors con stitutes members of the old com panies, the number from each being in proportion to the capital invested, with M. Roume as President. The chief pilots continue to be in charge of the respective routes, but economies have been achieved by a B
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