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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0181.PDF
JANUARY 25TH, 1945 FLIGHT promising one of an mails. He points out that although itis the peak load which fixes the aircraft capacity required, and that therefore there must be capacity far in excess otthe average load, with consequent low average load factors, the postal rates necessary are not excessive. Past experi-ence hat, shown an average of 90,000 letters to the ton and at 1.07a. and 1.34c!. per half-ounce letter per 1,000 miles onthe short-haul and long haul services, the operator must receive 8s. per ton-mile for the one and 10s. per ton milefor the other. A modest surcharge of say 3d. per half- ounce letter per 1,000 miles would, he maintains, show aprofit both to the Post Office and to the operator. The rate of i.34d. per half-ounce letter per 1,000 miles would represent 6d. per letter to Karachi and is. 4d. per letterto Sydney. He expresses the opinion that the public has not yet been trained to p?y fair rates for services renderedin the carriage of air mails, and that the Empire Air Mail scheme set up a false standard of values. If freight were to be carried on the two types ot servicevisualised, and in the same aircraft as passengers and mails. Major Mayo estimates the cost to the operator (at a 40 percent, load factor) as 5s. arjd 6s. 3d. respectively per ton- mile. These figures are equivalent to about 2s. Gd. and3s. per pound per 1,000 miles respectively. He admits that the cost per ton-mile on a special cargo service operatingat lower speeds may be considerably lower. Lord Swinton Reports THE HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE ON THE CHICAGO CONFERENCE CLOSE COMMONWEALTH CO-OPERATION THE House oi Lords debate—or "discussion," as LordLondonderry aptly called it—on Civil Air Transportgave the new Minister for Civil Aviation an opportunityJgr to present the first comprehensive review of the work of the British Delegation at the Chicago Conference. The Marquess of Londonderry asked for a clear-cut declara-tion of policy and expressed his satisfaction that the House would now receive a direct reply instead of what he was im-pelled to describe as previous vicarious answers of the Air Ministry. In pleading for a declaration of policy Lord Londonderrypointed out that the position of Great Britain in the air is closely allied with the foreign policy, and he thought the recentdebates on the structure of the Foreign Office had revealed the vital necessity for the closest co-operation between the Ministerfor Civil Aviation and the Foreign Secretary. He advocated more plain speaking without keeping the world guessing as tothe position Britain wanted to occupy. Pointing out that tins capacity for plain language is aptlydisplayed by the Americans, he deplored the propaganda issued from this country which ignored the fact that we have beenahead in all inventions in the air. The Minister for Civil Aviation (Viscount Swinton) said thatit was perhaps natural that issues on which there was disagree- ment should have been given wider publicity than those uponwhich for the first time a large measure of agreement had been reached. Dealing with the details of the Chicago Conference, he saidthat the problems of international air transport revolved around the exercise of "Five Freedoms": (1) The privilege> t° fly across the territory of another country; (2) to land for non-transport purposes; (3) to set down passengers, mail andfreight provided they were embarked in the country of origin of the aircraft; (4) the converse of (3) privilege, and (5)"theright to take on and set down intermediate traffic. The policy of the U.K. was set out in the White Paper andmore fully expanded by him at Chicago. The U.K. proposed a multilateral convention which would cover freedoms one,two, three and four, while the fifth should be the subject of bilateral negotiations. Such multilateral conventipn woulddefine the international routes over which these privileges would be exercised, and eliminate wasteful competition by deter-mining frequencies. The British proposal suggested that these would be divided on the basis ot traffic involved so that eachcountry's share would depend on the amount of traffic em- barked in its own country. The setting-up of an internationalauthority was proposed to supervise the carrying-out of these provisions. Unlimited Competition The U.S. policy—Viscount Swinton explained—differedfundamentally, being based on the conception of practically unlimited competition on every route covering the five free*doms, and an international organisation of merely a consulta- tive nature. Such unlimited competition was considered bythe British Delegation as wasteful and unfair. It was further felt by many that civil aviation and security are intimatelybound together. The Minister then mentioned the Australia and New Zealandproposal for an all-embracing international company which would own and operate all civil aircraft of the world. Anxious as people were to meet the security question, that particularway of meeting it could not find sufficient supporters. The U.K. Delegation and all the Commonwealth countriesfound themselves in agreement with a great part of the Canadian Draft Convention covering the first four freedoms.But the U.S. counter-proposals insisted on the general applica- tion of the fifth freedom, a general right to pick up inter-mediate traffic in any country along the route. Summarising the considerable discussion which rangedaround the fifth freedom, Lord Swinton said that various attempts were made to devise mathematical formulae to governits practical application, but they were all found impracticable. The method adopted in the British final proposal aimed atrelating the numbei of services to the amount of traffic, a fair division of the services between the countries on the basisof traffic embarked and a division of long routes into opera tional sectors. The international authority in consultationwith the operators should fix the capacity of the services which each State should be entitled to operate in each division. Inmaking the decision the international authority would be guided by tests which follow the pattern applied by the CivilAeronautics Board of the U.S. in deciding whether or not an additional internal airline service should be entitled to operate. The "Escalator" Clause The British plan also embodied the clastic escalator clausewhich provided that if for a period of twelve months an operator had increased his load factor (60-65 Per cent, beingthe agreed "constant load" factor) he would be entitled to increase the number of his service, and in the opposite eventhe would have to come down again. And finally provision was made that those countries which had been unable todevelop civil aviation because of their war effort should have a three years' period of grace during which other countrieswhich had come in on the route should be called on to reduce their national quotas. The U.S. were unable to accept this proposal, and the Ameri-can counter proposal embodied a general and unconditional grant of all five freedoms. This was signed, in addition tothe U.S.. by ten Latin American States (not including Brazil), Sweden, China, Afghanistan, Liberia, Lebanon ad referendum,and "furkey with some considerable reservations. On initiative of the U.K. delegation another agreement wasreached between twenty-eight countries, including Britain and America, accepting the first two freedoms between the signa-tories. Ic was unanimously resolved ihat all outstanding matters inwhich we had failed to agree should be referred to the Interim Council of the International organisation they had set up forreport and recommendation to the Governments concerned. Dwelling on achievements \r technical collaboration, LordSwinton said that for the first time a universal charter or code of air navigation has been adopted to which all nations wouldconform. A whole range of agreements ot practical impor- tance had been reached, summarised in twelve chapters ofTechnical Annexes internationally standardising a code of air navigation; airways systems and their equipment; air trafficcontrol practices; meteorological information; radio communi- cations ; investigation ot accidents, and minimum flexiblestandards of airworthiness procedure. Lord Swinton summarised the results ot the Chicago confer-
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