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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1663.PDF
FLIGHT AUGUST 23RD, 19415 CIVIL AVIATION Laoding Rights Wanted American Interest in the Middle East : Future Traffic Volume PLANS of United States airlines to fly to Europe and theMiddle East on the routes recently approved by the CivilAeronautics Board will require landing rights in $3, coun-tries, including the nations ot the Middle East. The proposed inter-contindrtal routes extending through the Middle East toIndia could not be opeiated into and through the foreign countries involved until these countries granted the necessaiylanding rights.- luterest in ttie establishment ol air routes that eventuallywill circle the world centres on the Middle East region, which has been called tht aerial crossroad cf the world. Estimateshave been heavy for touiist travel lrorn the United States to the historic and cultural centres of the Middle East in post-war years. The northern route between the United States and Scan-dinavia appear* at present to be the closest realisation through bilateral transpcit agreements already concluded with Iceland,Sweden. Denmark (including Greenland) and Eire. These agreements include recognition of the "five freedoms" of theInternational An Transport Agreement drawn up at the Inter- national Civil Aviation Convention at Chicago last December. The U.S. State Department, il was learned, hopes to arrangelor landing rights on other segments of the inter-continental routes, including the Middle East,through the application ot multi- lateral agreements covering the " free-doms ot the air " and through hpecihc bilateral agreements. The Stale De-partment believes that the poten- tialities ol post-war air travel,includ-ing tourist travel fiom the United States to many more parts ot theworld than were convenient by sea, are too great to be t>ounded by re-strictions. On the other hand, several nationshive expressed concern that the so- called Fifth Freedom privilege (lorcarrying passengers between inter- mediate countries on a route) wouldinterfere with the operation of national and legional airlines withinthe areas served by the through trunk airlines This danger, while no dcubtreal, is somewhat mitigated by Aiticle Three of the International AirTransport Agreement covering the Five Freedoms which specifically pro-v.des that: — " Each contracting state under-takes that in the establishment and operation ot through services dueconsideration shall be given to the interests ot their contracting states so as not to interfere unduly with their regional services01 to hamper the development ot their through services." li might be, of course, very difficult to determine when aconflict arises, what undue interference exactly means. The two airlines authorised to fly the northern segments ofthe inter-continental route, American Export Airlines and Pan American Airways, already have planned extensive advertisingcampaigns for tourist travel to Northern Europe. Pan Ameri- can has published a series of full-page colour advertisements in 1$ TAKING TOO FA iarge-circulation magazines in the United States, outliningplans for tourist air travel to points in Europe where landing rights already have been arranged Transcontinental and Western Air, which was authorisedwith Pan American to fly to points in the Middle East, also is planning an extensive advertising campaign to stimulatetourist air travel. But advertising portraying the historic and cultural regions of the Middle East, particularly Cairo,which was designated as a key stop on the TWA through route to India, cannot be circulated until landing rights in Egypthave been approved by the Egyptian Government, It is pointed out that the establishment ot through trunklines would encourage the development of regional airlines along the through routes. The through airlines will o|>er;iU' oninfrequent schedules at inconvenient times at some places, biu, will require a few regional passengers as a " marginal leservt^"to make their operations economical. Forecast The Civil Aeronautics Board, in designating the proposedinter-continental routes after several years of intensive study, estimated that 200,000 passengers a year would travel by airbetween the United States and the European Continent in the near post-war years. This figurewas based on estimates by the various airlines, ranging from 194,000air passengers a year to 550,000 passengers. CAB studies also showedthat about 80 per cent, of the travel by sea before the war originated inthe United States. The Board, in its studies, empha-sised that air travel in the future would not be restricted by the barriersof sea travel nor by seasonal fluctua- tions. The Board estimated thatthrough-travel by air without the necessity of changing at seaports asin travel by sea would greatly in- crease direct travel to inland ports.The Board also pointed out that air travel would make it possible totravel direct from the United States to destinations in the Middle and FarEast in less time than travel by rail to points within the United States. The Board also concluded that airtravel would not be aSected by winter and summer differentials of travel bysea. Travel studies indicated that air- craft, by their ability to fly abovestormy weather, would be able to pro- vide business, recreational and cultural travel during winUr<]months as well as during the summer. Juan Trippe, President of Pan American Airways, recentlyestimated that air travel would increase from 500 to 600 per cent, over previous estimates by 1950 and would extend tomany more parts of the world than travel by sea. He also estimated that the 800,000,000 dollars a year spent abroad byUnited States travellers before the war would increase to two or three times that amount with the development of air touristtravel. AIR MAIL A IR maif services irorn this country are now extended toTurkey Mail for Bulgaria, Greece (including Crete) and Roumania is flown to Turkey and thence forwarded by surfaceloutes. Parallel with this welcome extension ot air mail facilitiescame the announcement that the airgraph service is to be discontinued. This service has been of great value duringthe war and it seems altogether wrong to stop it now when Hit greatest variety of ai; mail facilities is so important tothe development of commercial relations. The advantage of the airgraph service was the saving of space and load on air-craft: if it has not been too widely used, the reason might nave been that it iias not been too widely known. But, evenduring the war commercial correspondents made good use of the service, and with a Post Office effort to popularise it more,it could certainly be of wider appeal. Surely the expected volume in air mail correspondence should justify the economyin transmission achieved by the airgraph service.*' HUSH-HUSH VISITH IGH Portuguese air officials accompanied by the U.S. AirAttache flew out over the Atlantic in an American air- craft to visit the "hush-hush" American airfield of SantaMaria in the Azores, which is destined to play a big part in civil aviation and is already familiar to thousands of Americansoldiers returning from the war theatres.
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