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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1403.PDF
74 FLIGHT JULY IQTH, 1945 Empire Route Partnerships Qood Results at Commonwealth Air Transport Conference erJ APLAN foi an Empire partnership in organising andoperating the trunk air routes was agreed last weekat the conference of the Commonwealth Air Trans- port Council. The conference, having sat throughout the week, held its final plenary session on Saturday, July 14, but delayed a public statement on the results of its work until later. It has since announced the satisfactory con- clusion of its consultations but, at the time when this report had to be closed, it had not disclosed the details. Each route required separate treatment because differ- ent partners are involved in each set of services. The United Kingdom is concerned on every route, but it will work with a different partner or partners on each. Con- ditions for the Africa route had been settledlaefeMW this conference began. They had been worked otftat th/ con- ference at Capetown in February last at which ten cqgntries, including the U.K. and seven Colonial territories, were represented. j****"'" . That agreement cleared the w&fmx <Arect co-operation between Britain and the Union m Soutli Africa in arrang- ing main line services. It included an aisieabie agreement between Britain and the Dominion to operate an equal number of services each, to share responsibility for the ground organisation with a dividing line at Nairobi, to pool non-divisible costs and to pool revenue and share profits in accordance with the number of services flown By each partner. As both partners also undertook to use tap same types of aircraft, they arranged to hold a\cdnimo3 pool of reserve aircraft for use in emergency. With that plan before it, the Loadori coofeseiA had a useful model and basis for the cgmsideratid|s ..oK ti j$£ main routes. The aim of the coherence was to'apply th same principle, with such modifications as might/be need in particular instances, to the Atlantic, Pacrfie, Austr; and India routes. The partners to\tg broj^kt into scb/femis for joint operation and organisation were Canada (^'tth Atlantic and Pacific), New Zealand (on the Pacific), tralia and India. They were all xepresente^-frt^tije^ednfer- ence. Southern Rhodesia, as having ar-speCfaTmterest in the port of call of Salisbury, together with the Union of South Africa, were also present; and Newfoundland, as the Power controlling the Atlantic terminal at Goose, had its representative in attendance. "Parallel Partnerships" Reports of the complete success of the conference meant that the task of adapting the system of "parallel partner- ship '' to these other routes had been accomplished. That is to say that Britain has arrived at a plan for apportion- ing services between herself and the Dominions and India, possibly on lines similar to those which she advocated for the control of competition between the nations at the Chicago International Conference last November. To that she has added a further series of unifying influences dealing with the cost of technical and commercial service on the ground, provision of aircraft and pooling of revenue. In a variety of ways, the Commonwealth Air Transport Council has gone so far beyond the idea of regulating com- petition between the nations on the air routes as to create a unity of interests. For practical purposes, the Empire's activities on the trunk routes will become those of a single unit compounded of a number of co-operating units. This allows all the British nations to present a united front, when negotiations with other Powers have to be entered upon. There have been no reports yet .of applications for permission to pick up and set down traffic at British airports. If such applications have not already been lodged, they can hte expected soon. The United States has authorised three companies to operate Atlantic services and has given licences to two of them to operate services to India. The services across the Atlantic can be so routed as to by-pass the United Kingdom. Eire has expressed herself as willing to receive international services without imposing any eco- nomic conditions. Aircraft of the United States can there- fore fly direct to the Shannon airport and thence across Britain to destinations in Scandinavia, France, Belgium or any other country which may be willing to subscribe to the United States' idea of the fifth freedom of the air. In operating to India, the American companies will have to be authorised by a special agreement with the British. If any of the Atlantic operators wish to avoid flying at extreme range, they will seek to call at Goose (in New- foundland), or Gander (in Labrador) for fuel, and this right ^'embraced by the general acceptance of the four freedoms of the air, at the Chicago conference ; but if they want to treat Goose as a junction and an exchange point for passengers and freight, then the U.S. Government will have to approach a British Power for permission. CcTademned to Bilateral Agreements By failing to agree at Chicago on some form of economic ™ control to/prevent unfair competition on the air routes, the nations gOndemned themselves to separate negotiations with the countries whose territory they wish to use. Every inter- national air route will, therefore, be subject to bilateral between all the countries coneejp^cl. Into those kral ag^ements the nations can put such economic clauses'sas they may think desirable. The nations e British Commonwealth last week acquired a com- n interest w|th the United Kingdom in those main air tes which tojuehfor terminate in British territory. They re to be presjfme<§ to have a similar common interest in reventing a^y attempt by other nations to overload a ute with services oryto interpret the "fifth freedom of t\e air." ia such a way as to introduce the principle of p shipping on the air routes. .-hex the Commonwealth Air Transport Council was. it ufflast year in Montreal, a suggestion that all the Britidn ifions should use the same form in making bilateral Agreements, to cover air services had been made. Last week's conference in London, applying the principle of economic regulation to the operators of the Empire, has evidently strengthened the case for the application of a similar principle in the dealings of all the British nations with other Powers. The bilateral agreements will probably be found to contain identical clauses. Speaking of the Southern Africa agreement, in the course of last week's conference, Lord Swinton, Minister of Civil Aviation, said: j "The same kind of agreements we make together, we wf!T""* make most gladly with other countries as well and, in sc doing, make the highways of the air the ways of peace and friendship for all nations." ,jj These agreements between Britain and the respective ~~ Dominions are intended to be Government agreements. They do not necessarily prescribe how a Government shall arrange for the handling of its own share of the services on a given route. In practice the Empire Governments are nominating a single operating company for each route. On the South Africa route, the B.O.A.C. will operate the three weekly services on behalf of the U.K. and South African Airwave the three on behalf of the Union. Timis not essential to the plan. Either party to three partnership agreements could nominate two or more opera- tors to maintain its share of the services, if it wished. There are some routes on which, for the present, the traffic offer- ing would not justify the introduction of a second operator. The decision of the Civil Aeronautics Board of the U.S.A. to license two operators on the route between New York and India, suggests an expectation of ample traffic along that line, encouraged probably by the use of two Atlantic crossings, by way of Newfoundland and the Azores. Britain has plumped for the single operator as represent- ing administrative convenience ; and all the Dominions have followed her example, but each party to the agreements will still be at liberty to vary this method of fulfilling its share of tbe partnerships.
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